Former president Donald Trump condemned what he called a "lunatic" after a random fatal stabbing on a Charlotte light-rail train and urged action against violent offenders, linking the attack to broader debates over bail policy and public safety.
Trump made the remarks Monday at the Museum of the Bible in Washington while addressing the Religious Liberty Commission, saying the nation must confront "evil people" and warning, "If we don't handle that, we don't have a country." The comments came after the fatal Aug. 22 stabbing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee, on the Charlotte Area Transit System's Lynx Blue Line.
Charlotte police said the suspect, identified as 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, was taken into custody shortly after the attack. Authorities pronounced Zarutska dead at the scene, and police said Brown was hospitalized before being arrested on a charge of first-degree murder. Investigators said the assault appeared random and that Zarutska and Brown did not know each other.
The Charlotte Area Transit System released surveillance footage that shows Zarutska boarding the train just after 9:45 p.m. on Aug. 22 wearing a pizzeria uniform and looking at her phone. The video shows a man in a red hoodie sitting behind her, then later pulling out a knife and stabbing her multiple times. The footage also shows the suspect moving through the rail car and waiting by the doors as other passengers looked on.
Trump described the attack as captured on tape and called the suspect a "madman," saying the violence was "not really watchable because it's so horrible, but just viciously stabbed." He used the incident to criticize cashless-bail policies, asserting that such measures allow violent offenders to be released and commit new crimes. "This cashless bail started a wave in our country where a killer kills somebody and is out on the street by the afternoon and, in many cases, going out and killing again," he said.
Records obtained by The New York Post and cited by local outlets show Brown had a history of arrests extending more than a decade, including charges such as felony larceny, robbery with a dangerous weapon and communicating threats. Police have not released a full timeline of Brown's prior cases, and court records and disposition details were not immediately available.
Zarutska, 23, had arrived in the United States to escape the war in Ukraine, according to her family and fundraising pages established after her death. The killing has drawn attention to public-safety concerns on public transit and sharpened partisan debate over criminal-justice reforms, with advocates for bail reform saying changes aim to reduce pretrial inequalities and critics arguing they have undermined public safety.
The Charlotte Police Department and local prosecutors said their investigation remains active. The case has prompted renewed calls from some national and local officials for changes in how jurisdictions balance public-safety risks and pretrial release policies as they weigh the evidence and consider potential charges.