A North Carolina magistrate released a career criminal on a "written promise to appear" in January, and that defendant has been charged after police say he fatally stabbed a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte light rail platform in August, according to court records and media reports.
Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes authorized the release of Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, during a Jan. 19 hearing after he was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of alleged misuse of the 911 system, documents seen by the Daily Mail show. Brown was detained earlier that day during a welfare check, when he told officers he believed "man made" materials were inside his body, the arrest affidavit said. Police told the Daily Mail the encounter was treated as a medical matter before Brown called 911 and was subsequently charged.
On Aug. 22, police say Brown stabbed 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska from behind as she sat on a train at the South End station in Charlotte. Video shared widely on social media and obtained by news outlets captured the attack, and Brown was arrested shortly afterward and taken to a hospital with injuries described by officials as non-life-threatening. He has been charged with first-degree murder, and the case is pending in Mecklenburg County.
Brown's mother told Newsweek that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and had been placed under psychiatric monitoring for two weeks in 2014 after an involuntary commitment order. She said she had urged authorities to keep him confined and that his behavior led her to evict him from her home. The mother and other critics have faulted the court system for allowing Brown to be released in January despite his mental-health history and a lengthy arrest record, according to media reports.
Court and police records show Brown has multiple prior arrests dating to 2007, including a 2014 conviction for armed robbery that carried a five-year prison term. He was released from that sentence in September 2020 and was arrested several times afterward on charges that include assault, trespassing and disorderly conduct, public records and reporting by the Charlotte Observer and the Daily Mail indicate. Some earlier charges were dropped, the Observer reported.
The Mecklenburg County court memo authorizing Brown's January release, which the Daily Mail published, lists Stokes' signature and indicates the condition of release was a written promise to appear at the next hearing. The Mecklenburg County District Attorney's Office told the Daily Mail it could not comment on defendants with pending cases but said in broad terms the office's position is that those who commit violent crimes should be held in custody pending trial.
The decision to release Brown drew immediate public and political criticism. Florida Rep. Randy Fine called for accountability for judges who had allowed Brown to be released. Former President Donald Trump again criticized cashless or low-bail policies in a Truth Social post, saying the case illustrated the need for tougher approaches to public safety. Social media users also expressed outrage and questioned the sequence of releases that allowed Brown to remain free before the August attack.
News organizations contacted by the Daily Mail reported they sought comment from Magistrate Stokes. The investigation and prosecution are continuing in Mecklenburg County, and court proceedings related to the murder charge remain pending. Zarutska's family said she had recently arrived in the United States seeking safety from the war in Ukraine; they called her death an "irreparable loss" on a fundraising page set up after the killing.
The case highlights tension in criminal-justice policy over pretrial release and mental-health interventions as local officials and advocates weigh public safety, defendants' rights and access to treatment. The Mecklenburg District Attorney's office reiterated its general stance that violent offenders should be held in custody while the case moves forward, and local authorities continue to investigate and prepare for prosecution.