Disturbing New Details Emerge After Charlotte Train Murder of Ukrainian Refugee [WATCH]

Court documents and law enforcement records have revealed a generational pattern of crime in the family of Decarlos Brown Jr., the man now federally charged in the stabbing death of a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte light rail train.

Federal authorities announced Tuesday that Brown Jr., who is homeless and has a felony record, has been charged with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.

The charge stems from the August 22 killing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, a refugee who fled war in Ukraine before settling in North Carolina.

Why is the disgusting, senseless, unprovoked murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska by a man named Decarlos Brown Jr. on a train in Charlotte NC not getting more media attention?! pic.twitter.com/9UDPxguWhN

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) September 7, 2025

Surveillance video from the train captured the fatal encounter, according to a Department of Justice complaint.

The affidavit states that Zarutska was stabbed three times in the middle of her throat with a pocket knife.

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The DOJ noted that Brown Jr. was seen on camera leaving the train with “blood dripping from him.”

James C. Barnacle Jr., special agent in charge of the FBI’s Charlotte office, said Tuesday, “Iryna Zarutska had likely taken that train ride many times before. She was probably tired after a day at work and just wanted to go home, but tragically she never made it. We hope this federal charge will help bring her family a measure of justice and the courts will hold the subject charged in this horrific act accountable. Everyone in this country deserves to go to work, to school or just across town without fear of being attacked.”

The latest charge adds to Brown Jr.’s state case, where he was previously charged with first-degree murder for the same incident.

While everyone was focused on Charlie Kirk’s assassination this Democrat judge in North Carolina ordered Iryna Zarutka’s murderer Decarlos Brown to be released from prison.

They are trying to make sure he doesn’t even go to trial and is set free. pic.twitter.com/ak330sYc7s

— Aesthetica (@Anc_Aesthetics) September 14, 2025

Family records reviewed by Fox News Digital show Brown Jr. is not the first member of his household linked to violent crime.

His older brother, Stacey Dejon Brown, is serving a 27- to 36-year sentence for the 2012 killing of 65-year-old Robert Heym during a robbery.

According to the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office, Stacey Brown, then 22, pleaded guilty in 2014 to second-degree murder, two counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, assault with intent to kill, and breaking or entering a motor vehicle.

The October 2012 robbery ended with Heym shot and killed. Prosecutors revealed that Stacey Brown and his accomplice, 21-year-old Roderick Derrick Crawford, fled the scene on the Charlotte light rail, using the same transit system later linked to his younger brother’s case.

In addition, the family’s criminal history includes their sister, 33-year-old Tracey Vontrea Brown, who has arrests for misdemeanor shoplifting, larceny, felony conspiracy, vehicle theft, and resisting public officers.

Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office records show her most recent arrests occurred in 2024 for misdemeanor larceny, felony conspiracy, and shoplifting.

Their father, Decarlos Brown Sr., has also faced charges, including breaking and entering, felony conspiracy, larceny, and possession of a weapon on a university campus, according to reporting by the New York Post.

The violent death of Zarutska has drawn national attention, both for the brutality of the act and the circumstances of her life.

Having left Ukraine to escape war, she was killed in what authorities described as a random and unprovoked attack on American soil.

As federal prosecutors move forward with the case, Brown Jr.’s history and his family’s record of criminal convictions highlight a cycle of crime spanning more than a decade in Charlotte.

The DOJ has not yet announced when Brown Jr. will make his first appearance on the federal charge.