President Donald Trump has demanded the death penalty for a man charged with brutally stabbing to death a Ukrainian refugee in North Carolina last month.
In a dramatic escalation of his law and order rhetoric, the president on Wednesday called for the execution of Decarlos Brown Jr, whose alleged attack of Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte has shocked the nation and stoked tensions over race and public safety.
“The ANIMAL who so violently killed the beautiful young lady from Ukraine, who came to America searching for peace and safety, should be given a ‘Quick’ (there is no doubt!) Trial, and only awarded THE DEATH PENALTY,” the president said on Truth Social.
“There can be no other option!!!”
The heinous attack took place on August 22, but has become a political flashpoint in recent days as Trump and his allies accused Democratic-run cities and states of failing to protect their citizens.
Chilling surveillance footage shows Zarutska entering the light rail and sitting in a row in front of Brown. Four minutes later, according to an FBI affidavit, Brown allegedly pulled a knife from his pocket and struck her three times from behind.
Police found the 23-year-old dead on the light rail with a stab wound in the middle of her neck and a small cut on her left knee.
Brown was arrested at the scene and charged on Tuesday with a federal count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.
The 34-year-old, who has a long criminal history, did jail time for robbery and has reportedly been diagnosed with schizophrenia, also faces state charges of first-degree murder.
In a press conference announcing the charges on Tuesday, Russ Ferguson, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, became emotional as he recounted what happened to Zarutska, who had come to the US to escape Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“I hope the family won’t mind me sharing,” Ferguson said, “but after Iryna’s death, the Embassy in Ukraine called and said, ‘We’ll help you bring her home.’ And her family said, ‘No.’ They said, ‘She loved America. We’re going to bury her here.’”
Trump also gave Zarutska’s family his condolences on Monday, after viewing the surveillance footage.
But the crime quickly became a political issue, as Brown had repeatedly been released on cashless bail earlier this year despite his long history of crimes.
The president blamed the killing on policies by Democrats, including former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, who is running for Senate in one of the most closely watched races of 2026.
The “woman’s death is now in the hands of the Democrats,” Trump said this week.
Many of Trump’s supporters have also seized on the fact that the crime involved a Black perpetrator and a white immigrant victim, and have accused the media of being slow to cover the issue.
“Many of the journalists in this room spilled plenty of ink trying to smear Daniel Penny for defending a subway car from a deranged lunatic in New York City,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, referencing the white US former Marine Corps leader who was acquitted for his role in the subway death of Jordan Neely, a homeless Black man.
“But none of those same reporters lift a finger to write stories about an actual murderer.”
Wednesday’s post is not the first time Trump has asked for the death penalty.
In 2017, he promised law enforcement officers he would “ask for the death penalty for any person who kills a cop”.
During last year’s presidential campaign, he also called for a law mandating the death penalty for drug dealers.
And at a Cabinet meeting, he said his administration would seek the death penalty in every murder case in D.C.. However, the district, which handles most local murders, abolished capital punishment in 1981.
