The FBI and Department of Transportation are investigating the shocking murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska aboard a Charlotte light-rail train last month, officials confirmed Monday.
“The FBI has been investigating the Charlotte train murder from day one,” FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X. “Stay tuned.”
🚨 The FBI has been investigating the Charlotte train murder from day one.
Stay tuned.
— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) September 9, 2025
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy echoed the administration’s law-and-order stance, warning that cities that fail to protect commuters risk losing federal funds.
“I stand firm with President Trump’s message of zero tolerance for criminality, especially on our federal DOT funded public transportation,” Duffy wrote. “If mayors can’t keep their trains and buses safe, they don’t deserve the taxpayers’ money. @USDOT will be investigating Charlotte over its failure to protect Iryna Zarutska. And we will also be looking at other crime ridden cities across the country.”
Duffy added that the crime underscores a national fear. “I was moved by a Charlotte resident who said today: ‘I don’t feel safe on public transportation. But, I have to work.’ No American should be put in that position and the Trump administration will do everything in its power to change that.”
Surveillance footage from Aug. 22 shows suspect Decarlos Brown Jr. — a repeat offender with at least 14 prior arrests — stabbing Zarutska multiple times after she boarded the train home from her job at a pizzeria. Authorities said Brown struck her in the neck before walking away casually as blood dripped to the floor.
President Donald Trump condemned the killing, blasting Democrat-backed bail reforms for unleashing dangerous criminals back onto the streets.
“I have seen the horrific video of a beautiful, young Ukrainian refugee, who came to America to escape the vicious War in Ukraine, and was innocently riding the Metro in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she was brutally ambushed by a mentally deranged lunatic,” Trump said.
“The perpetrator was a well known career criminal, who had been previously arrested and released on CASHLESS BAIL in January, a total of 14 TIMES. What the hell was he doing riding the train, and walking the streets? Criminals like this need to be LOCKED UP.”
More over at The New York Post:
FBI, DOT launch probes into killing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on NC train: ‘Stay tuned’ https://t.co/VUxvQTSXp4 pic.twitter.com/cDhdkAVgGY
— New York Post (@nypost) September 9, 2025
