Iryna Zarutska murder: A look at Decarlos Brown Jr's family’s long criminal history
Decarlos Brown Jr. is charged in the fatal stabbing of Iryna Zarutska, as records show his father, brother, and sister have criminal pasts.
Decarlos Brown Jr., the homeless man accused of stabbing a young Ukrainian woman to death on a Charlotte light rail train, comes from a family with a long history of crime, according to Fox News.
Court and law enforcement records his older brother, Stacey Dejon Brown, is serving a 27- to 36-year prison sentence for the 2012 shotgun killing of 65-year-old Robert Heym during a robbery.
His sister, 33-year-old Tracey Vontrea Brown, has a record that includes shoplifting, larceny, felony conspiracy, vehicle theft, and resisting police. Her most recent arrests came in 2024 for misdemeanor larceny, felony conspiracy, and shoplifting, according to the Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office.
Father Decarlos Brown Sr arrested
Their father, Decarlos Brown Sr., has also been arrested on charges including breaking and entering, felony conspiracy, larceny, and possession of a weapon on a university campus, according to the New York Post. He could not be reached for comment.
These cases highlight a family pattern of crime that has now led to Brown Jr.’s federal charge in the August 2025 killing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, a refugee from Ukraine who was attacked and killed on American soil in what officials say was a random, unprovoked act.
Back in 2012, Stacey Brown also used the Charlotte light rail to flee after Heym’s murder. He later pleaded guilty in April 2014 to second-degree murder, two counts of armed robbery, assault with intent to kill, and breaking into a vehicle. Prosecutors said Stacey and his partner, Roderick Derrick Crawford, boarded the train after the shooting and escaped through the transit center.
Zarutska was stabbed three times
On August 22, 2025, Zarutska was stabbed three times in the throat with a pocket knife while riding the train. Surveillance video recorded the attack, and a Department of Justice complaint said Brown Jr. was seen leaving the train with "blood dripping from him."
Federal prosecutors charged Brown Jr. on Tuesday with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. He had already been charged in state court with first-degree murder.
"Iryna Zarutska had likely taken that train ride many times before. She was probably tired after a day at work and just wanted to go home, but tragically she never made it," FBI Charlotte special agent in charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said Tuesday.
"We hope this federal charge will help bring her family a measure of justice and the courts will hold the subject charged in this horrific act accountable. Everyone in this country deserves to go to work, to school or just across town without fear of being attacked."
