Posted by US president could meet with victim Iryna Zarutska’s family to pass on his condolences
10 September 2025 8:41pm BST
Donald Trump has called for the man accused of murdering a Ukrainian refugee on a train to be executed.
Decarlos Brown Jr, 34, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder following the brutal stabbing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug 22.
Surveillance footage of the killing showed the moment Brown appeared to spring up from the seat behind an unsuspecting Zarutska and lunge at her neck.
Clips from the moments afterward show blood spattered across the train carriage floor.
The killing has sparked widespread concern about crime in American cities, as Mr Trump plans to expand his law and order blitz from Washington, DC to other states across the country.
Taking to Truth Social, Mr Trump branded Brown an “animal” and said he deserved the death penalty.
own Jr is accused of stabbing 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska Credit: Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office
Cameron Henderson US Reporter. Rob Crilly Chief US Correspondent
10 September 2025 8:41pm BST
Donald Trump has called for the man accused of murdering a Ukrainian refugee on a train to be executed.
Decarlos Brown Jr, 34, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder following the brutal stabbing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug 22.
Surveillance footage of the killing showed the moment Brown appeared to spring up from the seat behind an unsuspecting Zarutska and lunge at her neck.
Clips from the moments afterward show blood spattered across the train carriage floor.
The killing has sparked widespread concern about crime in American cities, as Mr Trump plans to expand his law and order blitz from Washington, DC to other states across the country.
Taking to Truth Social, Mr Trump branded Brown an “animal” and said he deserved the death penalty.
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He wrote: “The ANIMAL who so violently killed the beautiful young lady from Ukraine, who came to America searching for peace and safety, should be given a “Quick” (there is no doubt!) Trial, and only awarded THE DEATH PENALTY. There can be no other option!!!”
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told The Telegraph that Mr Trump may also meet with Zarutska’s family to pass on his condolences.
“Certainly he’d be willing to. He’s always willing to do things like that,” she said.
own Jr is accused of stabbing 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska Credit: Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office
Cameron Henderson US Reporter. Rob Crilly Chief US Correspondent
10 September 2025 8:41pm BST
Donald Trump has called for the man accused of murdering a Ukrainian refugee on a train to be executed.
Decarlos Brown Jr, 34, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder following the brutal stabbing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug 22.
Surveillance footage of the killing showed the moment Brown appeared to spring up from the seat behind an unsuspecting Zarutska and lunge at her neck.
Clips from the moments afterward show blood spattered across the train carriage floor.
The killing has sparked widespread concern about crime in American cities, as Mr Trump plans to expand his law and order blitz from Washington, DC to other states across the country.
Taking to Truth Social, Mr Trump branded Brown an “animal” and said he deserved the death penalty.
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He wrote: “The ANIMAL who so violently killed the beautiful young lady from Ukraine, who came to America searching for peace and safety, should be given a “Quick” (there is no doubt!) Trial, and only awarded THE DEATH PENALTY. There can be no other option!!!”
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told The Telegraph that Mr Trump may also meet with Zarutska’s family to pass on his condolences.
“Certainly he’d be willing to. He’s always willing to do things like that,” she said.
Brown now faces a federal charge of committing a murder on a mass transportation system and a state charge of first-degree murder, with both carrying the possibility of a death sentence.
On Tuesday, Pam Bondi, the attorney general, said the department of justice would seek the maximum penalty and that Brown would “never again see the light of day as a free man”.
Brown had a long history of arrests and pleaded guilty to armed robbery in 2014, serving six years in prison.
He appears to have suffered from mental illness and was charged with misusing 911 earlier this year after he told officers someone had put a “man-made” material inside his body to control him, according to court records.
Charged with a misdemeanour rather than a more serious felony, he was released without bail by a magistrate judge.
In a phone call with his sister six days after his recent arrest, Brown claimed the government had planted foreign “materials” in his brain and said they had been controlling his actions when he launched his attack on Zarutska.
In a recording obtained by the Daily Mail, Brown can be heard telling Tracey, 33: “I hurt my hand, stabbing her. I don’t even know the lady.
“I never said not one word to the lady at all. That’s scary, ain’t it. Why would somebody stab somebody for no reason?”
He added that he hopes the police will “investigate” the “materials…controlling” him.
The killing has sparked a national debate about the risk posed by repeat offenders and those with mental health issues, with Republicans setting it against the case of Daniel Penny, a former marine who was acquitted of fatally choking a homeless man.
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Mr Penny was prosecuted after he placed Jordan Neely in a chokehold on a New York Subway when he began acting in an erratic and threatening manner.
Neely had “dozens” of run-ins with police, largely owing to his mental health issues, prior to the subway incident, according to the New York Post.
Sharing a photo of Zarutska on X, JD Vance, the vice-president, wrote: “Daniel Penny prevented this from happening on a NYC subway. Instead of thanking him, many hated him for it.”
Zarutska, who fled Ukraine to escape the war in 2022, was returning home by train from her job at a pizza restaurant when Brown stood up behind her and slashed at her neck three times, leaving her dead within minutes.
Her aunt, Valeria Haskell, told the Daily Mail that they were “exhausted” by the national firestorm around the killing.
Speaking from her home in Huntersville, North Carolina, she said that Zarutska’s mother had been too scared to leave their house as a result, coming on top of the trauma the family had coped with in fleeing their home country following Russia’s invasion.
“I feel like people can’t imagine what we are going through,” Ms Haskell, 56, told the newspaper.
She said the family had “been living for three years in incredible pain” as a result of the Ukraine war and said they would need “time” and “space” to come to terms with their grief. “I have no words,” she said.
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