A Ukrainian woman who came to America in search of safety after escaping the war in her homeland was brutally stabbed to death at a Charlotte train station.
Ukrainian woman killed by career criminal
35-year-old Decarlos Brown has been charged with her murder, and unsurprisingly, has a long history of arrests and violent crimes.
Authorities say Brown fatally stabbed 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska late Friday night at the East/West Boulevard station in the city’s South End.
The attack reportedly happened around 10:30 p.m., leaving the young Ukrainian woman with multiple stab wounds.
Emergency responders declared her dead at the scene, according to police.
Brown was quickly taken into custody after the incident. He was transported to a hospital with injuries described as non-life-threatening before being charged with first-degree murder once released.
Zarutska’s relatives described her as someone who had only recently arrived in the United States, hoping to escape the horrors of the ongoing war in Ukraine.
On a GoFundMe page, her loved ones wrote that she had been “seeking safety from the war and hoping for a new beginning.”
Her sudden death, they added, was “an irreparable loss for her family.”
While her relatives mourned a life cut short, details about Brown’s criminal past painted the picture of a man who had spent nearly his entire adult life in and out of jail.
Brown has a lengthy criminal record
Police records reveal that Brown was arrested as recently as January of this year, accused of misusing 911.
During that incident, authorities said he told officers he believed someone had given him a “man-made” substance that controlled his actions.
Despite that alarming claim, he was released without bail while awaiting trial.
Just a few years earlier, in 2014, Brown was convicted of armed robbery. He served five years in prison before being released in September 2020.
His time outside of prison did not last long before new trouble began.
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By February 2021, only months after his release, Brown was arrested again, this time for assaulting his own sister in Charlotte. Police said the altercation left her with minor injuries.
That same month, records show, he faced additional charges for injury to personal property and trespassing.
According to a police report, Brown had been told not to return to a particular residence but ignored the order, showing up at the home and damaging the front door by kicking it.
Suspect who stabbed Ukrainian woman had most charges dropped
The pattern of disturbing behavior continued. In July 2022, Brown was arrested again in what officers described as a domestic disturbance.
The report from that incident stated, “[Brown] was arrested for disorderly conduct. The suspect was yelling and cursing, causing a disturbance and drawing the attention of multiple tenants while on the property the call for service was located.”
His long arrest history stretches back even further. Records indicate that Brown’s first encounters with the law date to 2007, when he was still a juvenile.
Over the next seven years, he was picked up at least six times for charges including felony larceny, robbery with a dangerous weapon, and making threats.
According to the Charlotte Observer, many of those charges were eventually dropped, but the arrests themselves highlight a long trail of criminal behavior.
Despite that record, Brown was once again walking free on Friday night when police say he targeted Zarutska, ending the life of the 23-year-old who had left everything behind to start fresh in America.
Officials have not revealed what might have triggered the deadly encounter.
The young woman’s family, now grappling with shock and grief, shared on the fundraising page that she had dreamed of building a new life in North Carolina after leaving Ukraine following Russia’s 2022 invasion.
“We have created this fundraiser to support Valeria and her loved ones during this heartbreaking time and to help them with the unexpected expenses,” the page stated.
Homeless man assaults and bites victims
Elsewhere, a separate violent attack rattled New York City early Monday when a homeless man allegedly assaulted two strangers in Central Park, choking both victims and biting one man’s ear.
Police identified the suspect as 27-year-old David Luciano. Officers said the first assault occurred around 1:20 a.m. near West Drive and 62nd Street, where Luciano allegedly grabbed an 18-year-old man by the neck, then punched and kicked him before fleeing.
Roughly 30 minutes later, police say Luciano attacked again, this time targeting a 37-year-old man near West Drive and 93rd Street.
Authorities said he allegedly threw the victim to the ground, placed him in a chokehold, and bit his ear before running off.
Both men were treated at Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital and were reported to be in stable condition.
The victims did not know each other or the attacker, police noted.
Luciano is now looking at multiple charges including two counts of assault, one count of criminal obstruction of breathing, and one count of petit larceny after he allegedly stole one victim’s bicycle before fleeing.
Officers later recovered the bike. Luciano was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
