The suspect in the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian woman in the Charlotte light rail system at the end of last month now faces federal charges that would do it eligible for the death penalty, according to the Department of Justice.
Decar them Brown Jr., 34, who was arrested on August 22 after he fatally stabbed Iryna Zarutska, 23, was accused by the United States prosecutor’s office in the west district of North Carolina for committing an act that caused death in a mass transport system, which could do it eligible for the death penalty, he said Tuesday on Tuesday.
“This brutal attack against an innocent woman who simply tries to reach her destiny is an attack on the American way of life. Of course, crimes like this affect the victim more: Iryna deserves justice, and we will bring justice to her and her family,” said the United States prosecutor Russ Ferguson, in a statement on Tuesday.
Iryna Zarutska in a photo published on her Instagram.
Iryna Zarutska/Instagram
During a press conference on Tuesday, Ferguson described the incident as a “terrorist act” and said that he and the special FBI agent of North Carolina, James Barnacle Jr., spoke with Zarutska’s mother and uncle to alert them to federal positions. Ferguson said the family is “suffering as any of us would be.”
“Nobody should sit with fear while on the lightwail,” Ferguson said while containing tears.
The charges occur after the mayor of Charlotte VI Lyles said that the city is now increasing security in the “effectiveness” trains immediately “, since the attack continues to cause indignation among elected officials.
“While I reflect on the tragic murder of Iryna Zarutska, my heart continues with his family and our community while trying to make sense of this horrible and meaningless,” Lyles said in a statement Monday night.
Zartuska, who previously lived in a shelter of bombs in Ukraine before coming to the United States, was stabbed while traveling on the Lynx blue line in Charlotte, according to an affidavit obtained by ABC News. He had just finished the job and headed home when he was “brutally murdered,” Ferguson said.
The recent launch of the attack against the video has caused national outrage, with the Secretary of Transportation of the United States, Sean Duffy, saying the department He is investigating the city and “his inability to protect Iryna Zarutska.”
“If mayors cannot keep their trains and buses safe, they do not deserve taxpayers’ money,” Duffy said in a Publication shared with X Mondays.
The governor of North Carolina, Josh Stein, also said that he was “horrified” the murder not caused.
“We need more police officers in the rhythm to keep people safe,” Stein said in a statement on Monday.
This occurs after the traffic system of the Charlotte area, or Cats, confirmed to ABC News that there was no security aboard the train at the time of the attack, with a spokesman who says that a security team “patrol the system, are not parked in an area.”
“At the time of the incident, they traveled on a train directly where the incident occurred,” a Cats spokesman told ABC News.
Lyles said that “immediately effective” Cats security personnel will be “to implement a stronger presence on blue line platforms” and that the police will also “increase patrols in key areas throughout the traffic system.”
“The residents of our community and the visitors of our region depend on public transport. We must ensure that our public transport system and our city are safe,” said Lyles.
Iryna Zarutska, who is not in the photo, was stabbed to death in an unpaved attack while traveling on the lightwail in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Charlotte Area Traffic System
Cats will also implement “new safety operations, including bicycle units and urban land vehicles” in the next two or three weeks, Lyles said.
Zarutska boarded the train on the night of August 22 and sat in a hall seat directly in front of the suspect, departing Brown Jr., 34, who is seen in a window seat with an orange sweatshirt.
The train travels for “approximately four and a half minutes before the suspect takes a knife out of her pocket, displays the knife, pauses, then she gets up and hits the victim three times,” according to the affidavit obtained by ABC News.
Before stabbing, there seemed to “no interaction between the victim and the defendant,” said the affidavit.
Zarutska was declared dead on the scene and a witness directed the officials to the suspect’s location, said the affidavit.
Decar them Brown Jr., 34, was arrested on August 22 for stabbing a 23-year-old woman at the Charlotte Light Rail, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department
Brown was arrested after he was discharged from the hospital with “injuries that do not threaten the life suffered at the time of the incident” and was accused of first degree murder, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police department.
The 34 -year -old suspect has a criminal record that includes theft and rupture and income. He also spent five years in prison for robbery with a dangerous weapon from 2015, according to the North Carolina Adult Correction Department.
In total, Brown has been accused 14 times in the past, including an arrest in January, but “he was still in the streets” before the attack, said Barnacle.
The next appearance in the Brown court is scheduled for September 19, according to judicial records. It is not clear if Brown has a lawyer who can speak in his name.
Barnacle and Ferguson said they have not spoken with the White House about Brown federal charges.
The authorities said that Zarutska, who had worked in a center of the elderly, a pizzeria, took care of animals in the neighborhood and recently moved with his partner, will be buried in the United States, even after the Ukraine embassy reached his family.
“No, he loved the United States, we will bury her here,” said his family, according to Ferguson.
Alexander Mallin of ABC News contributed to this report.
