Decarlos Brown Jr., the 34-year-old charged in the Aug. 22 fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train, told family members he killed her because he believed she was reading his mind, his sister said.
Surveillance video released by the Charlotte Area Transit System shows moments of the attack and a passenger reacting to being stabbed. Authorities have charged Brown in the killing, and federal authorities have also filed charges as the investigation continues.
Brown's sister, Tracey Brown, told CNN that her brother is a paranoid schizophrenic who had told family members repeatedly that the government had implanted a chip in him. She said his behavior deteriorated after he was released from a five-year prison sentence for armed robbery in 2022 and that he became increasingly aggressive, struggled to hold conversations and could not maintain steady employment.
"A person that is hearing voices in their head and believes the world is against them, they're going to break. And I think that night he broke," Tracey Brown told CNN. She also said Brown had previously assaulted her in 2022, an attack in which he bit her and broke a door.
Brown's brother Jeremiah, who shares the same father, told the New York Post he believed the killing could have been prevented and said family members had not been fully aware of Decarlos Brown Jr.'s mental health problems. "I didn't even know he had mental problems…You can't just let him walk free especially because of mental issues," Jeremiah told the Post. He added that the family hopes the victim's relatives receive support.
Court records show Brown had other run-ins with police after his 2022 release. A document describing one incident said officers who responded found Brown telling them he believed someone had given him a "man-made" material that controlled when he ate, walked and talked. Officers told him the issue was medical and there was nothing further they could do; Brown subsequently called 911 to speak with police again, the document said. He was arrested earlier this year for allegedly misusing the 911 system and released on a written promise to appear, according to court records.
Investigators and prosecutors are reviewing Brown's actions leading up to the attack as well as his mental health history. Tracey Brown said their mother tried to have him placed in long-term mental health care but could not because she was not his legal guardian.
The victim, Iryna Zarutska, emigrated from Ukraine with her mother, sister and brother in August 2022 to escape the war. Friends and family have described her as someone who embraced life in the United States. Zarutska's death has drawn attention from local and national media and prompted renewed discussion about how mental health crises are handled by the criminal justice and health systems.
Police released still images from transit surveillance and said detectives are continuing to investigate the attack. The Charlotte Area Transit System made the video public amid calls for transparency about what happened on the light rail car and how the incident unfolded.
Prosecutors have charged Brown in state court and federal authorities have lodged additional charges as the FBI reviews the on-camera attack, according to media reports. Court proceedings are pending, and authorities have not released a full account of the motive beyond statements from family members and court documents describing Brown's reported belief in implanted material.
Family accounts, court records and the public release of surveillance footage have highlighted both the violent nature of the attack and questions about whether more could have been done to intervene earlier. Local officials have not commented publicly on whether any system failures contributed to the outcome. The investigation and legal process are ongoing.