Decarlos Brown Jr has been charged with the murder of Iryna Zarutska and could be facing the death penalty, but his own mother has said that it should never have been allowed to happen.
After finishing up work at a local pizza joint in Charlotte, North Carolina, Iryna Zarutska boarded a bus to go home – but she never made it. In what seemed like an unprovoked act of violence, Decarlos Brown Jr pulled a knife and stabbed her “three times” in now viral footage released by the city, CNN reported.
Credit: Facebook .
Police arrested Decarlos at the next stop, but despite other passengers rushing to help Iryna, she was declared dead at the scene by first responders.
“The video of the heartbreaking attack that took Iryna Zarutska’s life is now public. I want to thank our media partners and community members who have chosen not to repost or share the footage out of respect for Iryna’s family. This was a senseless and tragic loss. My prayers remain with her loved ones as they continue to grieve through an unimaginable time,” Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles wrote on Twitter.
The US Attorney’s Office in the Western District of North Carolina charged him with committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. He could now be facing the death penalty if found guilty.
Credit: Charlotte Area Transit System
What did Decarlos Brown Jr’s mother say?
Decarlos Brown Jr’s mother, Michelle Dewitt, spoke to Channel Nine in North Carolina, revealing that she’d kicked him out of her house after he returned from a five-year prison stint with increasingly “aggressive” behaviour. She had attempted to have him committed to a long-term facility, but could not because she was not his legal guardian, CNN also reported.
“He started saying weird things,” she said. “He started saying that he wasn’t in his body. The system failed him.”
When she found out about his arrest, Michelle “didn’t think it was him”, telling reporters: “I said, ‘That was surely a mistake. That doesn’t seem like his character. He wouldn’t do anything like that. That’s just not who he is as an individual. He likes to have fun, make jokes, not hurt anyone.”
When he phoned her from prison, Decarlos simply said, “Hello and that he loved me.”
Addressing the family of Iryna Zarutska, who also fled Ukraine with her, she added: “My heart goes out to the victim’s family. What he did was atrocious. It was horrible. It was wrong.”
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Featured image credit: Charlotte Area Transit System and Facebook
