Decarlos Brown Jr told sister he killed Iryna Zarutska because she was reading his mind.
Days after Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was stabbed to death on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina, accused Decarlos Brown Jr’s sister said Brown thought Iryna was reading his mind.
The sister, Tracey Brown, confirmed that her brother is a paranoid schizophrenic who believed that the government implanted a chip in him. Tracey herself was at the receiving end of her brother’s violence when Decarlos broke down a door and bit her in 2022. “A person that is hearing voices in their head and believes the world is against them, they’re going to break. And I think that night he broke,” she told CNN. Decarlos’ mother told CNN that she tried to get him placed in a mental care facility but could not do so as she wasn’t her legal guardian.
At the time of the stabbing and his subsequent arrest, 34-year-old Brown was homeless.
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The moment Iryna saw her killer’s face inside a running train in North Carolina.
Video shows no interaction between Zarutska and Brown
The paranoid attack that led to the death of Zarutska was not preceded by any interaction between her and the killer. Surveillance footage showed that when Zarutska entered the train, Brown was already there and she took the seat directly in front of Brown. She was looking at her phone. Brown stood up, pulled a knife out of his pocket while Zaritska was still watching her phone.
Brown jumped to attack Zarutska and the video revealed the surprised and scared look in Zarutska’s eyes as she saw the attacker.
Then she fell to the floor.Brown has a long criminal history and earlier this year, Brown was charged with misuse of 911, a class 1 misdemeanor. Brown allegedly asked officers to investigate a “man-made” material that controlled when he ate, walked and talked, court documents stated. Officers told Brown “the issue was a medical issue,” and there was nothing more they could do. Brown became upset and called 911, the records state.