BREAKING: Family of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska — brutally stabbed on a Charlotte train — finally speaks out 💔
“No family should ever have to go through this,” they wrote in a trembling statement. But hidden in the letter is one chilling line that no one expected…
Iryna Zarutska’s family speaks out after Ukrainian refugee was slaughtered on train: ‘No family should have to go through this’
Zarutska was stabbed to death allegedly by repeat offender Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, in a horrifying, caught-on-camera killing, which has left her family bereft and calling for a solution to systemic failures in the city’s public safety.
Iryna Zarutska’s family demanded justice for the murdered 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee in a statement released Tuesday. jamesfuneralhomelkn.com
Zarutska was stabbed to death allegedly by repeat offender Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, in a horrifying, caught-on-camera killing in Charlotte. Charlotte CATS
“We are heartbroken beyond words. Iryna came here to find peace and safety, and instead her life was stolen from her in the most horrific way,” a family spokesperson said in the statement issued by lawyers and obtained by WSOC-9.
“No family should have to go through this.”
Her relatives demanded that prosecutors lock up Brown and, further, address the “broader crisis in public safety and systemic failure.”
Brown’s half-brother Jeremiah similarly felt that the shocking stabbing might never have occurred if the North Carolina city had a functioning justice system.
“No family should have to go through this,” Zarutska’s heartbroken loved ones said of her death. Instagram/ Iryna Zarutska
“I think they could have pretty much prevented it then,” Jeremiah told The Post, referring to the lax terms set by a magistrate judge that allowed Decarlos to be released from jail in January.
Brown had previously been arrested 14 times and was known to suffer from schizophrenia, according to records.
Video allegedly shows the bloodthirsty maniac sitting on the train behind Zarutska for several minutes before he unsheathed a knife, stood up, and thrust the blade into her several times.
“He could do it again. They should still treat him for his mental issues but there are consequences for his actions,” Jeremiah, who shares a father with Decarlos, told The Post. “I think he should suffer the consequences.”
“I hope for the family impacted by the lady on the train,” he said. “I hope they get the support they need.”
Family of Zarutska is also asking the public and media to respect her dignity by not reposting the graphic footage of her ghastly murder.
Zarutska’s aunt, Valeria Haskell, said her niece’s family has spent the last three years living in “incredible pain” in their war-torn country of Ukraine, and now are grappling to cope with her murder.
“I feel like people can’t imagine what we are going through,” Haskell told the Daily Mail at her home in Huntersville — located about 15 miles from Charlotte. “I have no words.”
Haskell, Zarutska’s aunt through marriage, said the 23-year-old’s mother, Anna, is struggling the most over her daughter’s brutal murder.
She’s so distraught over losing Zarutska that she’s hunkered down at her home in Ukraine as she battles to come to terms with the death, her aunt said.
In addition to local charges, Brown has been hit by federal charges of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. Those charges were issued by the Justice Department on Tuesday.
