Suspect in fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Ukrainian woman speaks out from jail revealing possible motive for crime
Britt Jones
Featured Image Credit: instagram/@lucaveros225
The sister of the man who has been charged with the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska has revealed a possible reason for the crime.
Decarlos Brown Jr. has revealed to his family the reason why he allegedly stabbed Zarutska to death on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Tracey Brown was assaulted by her brother in 2022 attack, where he bit her and broke a door, and has alleged he is a paranoid schizophrenic.
When she saw the footage of him murdering Zaruska, he said she knew he had reached the end of his limit with his mental health.
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She told the New York Post: “When I saw the video, I automatically knew he — and I hate to say it because she didn’t deserve it — but he had come to some breaking point.
“I just tried to wrap my mind around. Why would he do this? Like, this is not him. And the only thing that I could think of is he just… broke. He couldn’t take it anymore.”
The audio of Brown’s phone conversation with his sister as he sits behind bars - shared by the Daily Mail - has shed light on why he says he killed the innocent woman.
He said: "I feel like the material used in my body stabbed the lady."
His sister responded: "So she just got stabbed?"
He responded: "Yeah. You know that's not me. I'm talking like this for no reason. But since they did that now they've gotta investigate the materials in my body exposed to."
When asked why he targeted Zarutska, he said: "They just lashed out on her and that's what happened.
"Whoever was working the materials they lashed out on her. That's all there is to it."
The call between the siblings happened six days after the murder, on 28 August.
Brown’s sister said she had visited that time because she wanted to understand his motives and has also appeared before him face-to-face since that call.
Tracey said that in the visit with her brother in the past week, he threatened her and their mother.
“When I went to visit him, he was mumbling and talking to himself,” Tracey said. “And I said, ‘Well, what’s on your mind?’
"He looked at me and he was like, ‘I have to get you to.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean you have to get me?’ He said, ‘You and mama. Y’all are being trafficked.’
"And I said, ‘Well, how are we being trafficked?’ And he said, ‘The government is trafficking y’all to get to me.'”
At first, when she heard about the stabbing, she believed it had to have been ‘self-defence’ as he had told her he had been on his way to a ‘mental hospital’, having believed that the government had implanted a chip into his body.
Tracey said: “He said he was on his way to the hospital, the mental hospital… I just wanted to know why her, because he had been on the train for a while before she got on.”
She explained: “And he said, well, she was reading my mind. He said she was reading my thoughts.”
Brown was charged with first-degree and committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system in federal court.
An arrest affidavit which was obtained by PEOPLE, revealed Brown was believed to have unfolded a knife from his pocket and stabbed Zarutska three times after she boarded and sat in front of him.
Brown has not entered a plea yet.
Tracey spoke to the Daily Mail about her phone call with her brother, where he is supposed to have told her: "I hurt my hand, stabbing her.
"I don't even know the lady. I never said not one word to the lady at all. That's scary, ain't it. Why would somebody stab somebody for no reason?"