Family and officials are sharing more about the young woman whose life was cut short in a random stabbing on a Charlotte light-rail train.
Authorities confirmed the victim as 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, a refugee from Ukraine who had fled the war and once lived in a bomb shelter before making her way to North Carolina.
Her final moments were captured on surveillance cameras inside the train, footage that helped police identify and arrest the suspect.
Zarutska’s family told U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson and FBI agent James Barnacle Jr. that she chose Charlotte as her new home after escaping war-torn Ukraine. Here, she quickly built a life—working at a pizza restaurant, caring for animals, volunteering at a senior center, and commuting often by train.
“The first day she was allowed to work, the very same day she got her permit, she found a job,” Ferguson said.
Though the Ukrainian embassy offered to return her body home, her mother and uncle insisted she stay in the country she had grown to love.
“She loved America. We’re going to bury her here,” the family said.
Federal prosecutors announced Tuesday that 34-year-old Decarlos Dejuan Brown now faces a federal charge of committing a fatal act on a public transportation system. Brown, who has a history of violent offenses, is also facing a state murder charge from Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.
