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A hard-nosed Trump administration prosecutor is pledging the homeless maniac accused of brutally killing Iryna Zarutska will face justice despite a finding that he is “incapable to proceed” on state murder charges.
US Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon put out a clarification on X Thursday that the federal case against Decarlos Brown Jr. would not be affected by the Dec. 29 finding in his contemporaneous state murder case in North Carolina.
“Folks: I had a great call this morning with our US Attorney in Charlotte. Brown remains in federal custody and so the parallel state proceedings are in no way dispositive. There will be a federal competency determination and prosecution track taking precedence,” Dhillon said.
The results of Brown’s evaluation at Central Regional Hospital were sealed in state court and only came to light Tuesday when his defense team filed a motion seeking a 180-day delay of a hearing to determine whether he’s fit to proceed with a death penalty trial.
The revelation set off a firestorm of outrage that Brown, who was arrested 14 previous times and free on a “written promise” to return to court when he allegedly stabbed Zarutska to death on a Charlotte light rail train in August, would escape justice.
The US Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina also took to X to set the record straight about Brown’s bifurcated state and federal charges.
“DeCarlos Brown is in federal custody on a federal indictment. The state proceedings, including any competency finding in those proceedings, are completely separate,” the office wrote.
Brown, 35, allegedly ambushed Zarutska — a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee — as she was seated in front of him on a Lynx Blue Line train in Charlotte on Aug. 22, 2025.
The horrifying slaying was caught on camera and showed him rise to his feet before plunging a knife into her neck several times and then casually walking away, leaving a trail of blood drops in his path.
The footage shows the mortally wounded woman looking terrified as she bled out in her seat, none of her fellow passengers offering help or comfort.
Brown was arrested a short time later and charged with first-degree murder. The sheer brutality of the killing made the case national news, and President Trump himself called for the career criminal vagrant to face the death penalty.
English (US)