On Tuesday, the Ministry of Justice accused a man who was accused of fatally stabbed a Ukrainian refugee on a commuter train in North Carolina last month with a federal crime that could bear the death penalty.
The federal indictment comes in the midst of growing questions about why Decarlos Brown JR was on the street despite 14 previous criminal arrests before he was accused of taking off a knife and killing the 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska in an apparently random attack recorded on video.
The case has become the last flash point in the debate about whether Charlotte tackles sufficient violent crime, mental disorders and transit safety. The Trump government says that the murder shows how local leaders, judges and policy in cities by democratically guided cities cannot protect their residents against violent crime.
“Iryna Zarutska was a young woman who lived the American dream horrible murder is a direct consequence of failed soft-on-crime policy that criminals placed for innocent people,” said Attorney General, Pam Bondi, said in a statement. “We will look for the maximum fine for this unforgivable act of violence – he will never see the daylight again as a free man.”
Zarutska lived in a bomb care in Ukraine before he came to the US to escape the war, according to family members, who described her as determined to build a safer life.
Video that was released on Friday, shows Zarutska who enters a Lightrail train on August 22 and to take a seat for Brown, who was behind her. Minutes later, without any clear interaction, he brought out a pocket knife, stood and cut her in the neck, researchers said. Passengers screamed and spread when she collapsed.
He was federally accused of causing death on a mass transport system, which comes to life in prison or death penalty. Russ Ferguson, the American lawyer for the Western district of North Carolina, said that extra charges can be made as the investigation continues.
The federal case runs parallel to the state affairs that Brown accuses of murder in the first degree.
The death penalty is also a potential punishment for people convicted of murder in the first degree in North Carolina. However, the State has not carried out an execution since 2006. Legal challenges about the use of deadly injection medicines and the presence of a doctor at executions have partially delayed the action.
Brown had cycled through the criminal justice system for more than a decade, including five years for theft with a dangerous weapon in Mecklenburg County, according to the court reports. He was arrested earlier this year after he repeatedly called 911 from a hospital and claimed that people were trying to control him. A judge released him without bail.
His mother told the local television that this year she was looking for an involuntary psychiatric obligation after he became violent at home. Doctors found the diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Judicial data show that a judge ordered a psychological exam in July at the request of his public defender to determine whether he was able to contribute to his own defense. It was not clear whether the exam was planned or why it did not happen before the attack of the end of August.
The office of the public defender of Mecklenburg County did not answer any call on Tuesday.
Charlotte has increased safety along the transit lines in response to the fatal stabbing, said Mayor VI Lyles in a letter to the inhabitants of the city. The letter from the Democratic mayor was also critical of the legal system, which some of the critics of the city’s reaction reflected.
Lyles called the murder ‘tragic failure by the courts and magistrates’ and said that the officers of the city are arresting people who are then released quickly.
The stabbing comes when Lyles is looking for the democratic nomination in its bid on a fifth term on Tuesday, and a stir of Republicans, including Trump and figures in the Make America Great Again Movement.
The state auditor, Republican Dave Boliek, said that his office would check the transits system of Charlotte, to its safety and security budget and private security contracts.
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