‘Seeking safety from the war’: Artist from Ukraine brutally stabbed to death on light rail train for no apparent reason, police say

A young woman who escaped the perils of war was brutally stabbed to death for no apparent reason on a popular light rail train in North Carolina last week, Tar Heel State law enforcement say.

Decarlos Dejuan Brown, Jr., 34, stands accused of one count of murder in the first degree, according to the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department.

On the night of Aug. 22, Iryna Zarutska, 23, died on the Charlotte Area Transit System’s LYNX Blue Line train. She was repeatedly stabbed, at least once in the throat, police claim.

The victim, an artist, had recently arrived in the United States from Ukraine, according to a GoFundMe for her family. She left her native country in order to leave the daily threat of violence behind.

“Ira had recently arrived in the United States, seeking safety from the war and hoping for a new beginning,” the fundraiser reads. “Tragically, her life was cut short far too soon.”

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The incident occurred just before 10:00 p.m. at the East/West Boulevard station along Camden Road in South End, authorities said.

And there appears to be no motive whatsoever.

Detectives reviewed on-board surveillance footage which showed Zarutska entering the train car and sitting directly in front of Brown, according to an affidavit obtained by The Charlotte Observer.

After that, the ride carried on for some four and 1/2 minutes without incident, police said. Then, without warning, provocation, or any other sort of interaction, Brown unfolds a knife, pauses, stands up, and finally stabs Zarutska over and over, according to law enforcement.

The footage shows the woman is rendered non-responsive as blood hits the floor and the man gets up and walks away, according to the affidavit.

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“The defendant is the assailant on the video,” the affidavit reads. “There appears to be no interaction between the victim and defendant.”

Zarutska was pronounced dead at the scene of the alleged crime.

When police arrived, several onlookers pointed responding officers to Brown – who remained standing on an outbound platform. Police described the defendant as having a cut on his right hand and said he matched the description given by 911 callers.

Zarutska held a degree in art restoration from Synergy College in Kyiv and previously studied English at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College in nearby Salisbury, according to The Charlotte Ledger.

“She was always very helpful, very supportive, and just had a heart of gold,” a family friend told Charlotte-based NBC affiliate WCNC. “She was a sweetheart. And it makes me sick to think that she’s gone.”

The defendant is well known to the legal system in the area.

The Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office website currently shows five arrests for Brown dating back to 2022. But he has a total of 16 different cases in the county dating back to 2013, according to WCNC. In 2015, the defendant was reportedly sentenced to a five-year state prison stint for robbery with a dangerous weapon, breaking and entering, and larceny. In September 2022, Brown was arrested again for allegedly assaulting a woman and damaging real property, according to the sheriff’s office.

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