Zarutska stabbing suspect found incompetent to stand trial

The man accused of fatally stabbing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte commuter train has been found incompetent to stand trial in federal court, delaying the prosecution in a case that drew national attention after surveillance video of the attack was released.

Decarlos Brown Jr., 35, appeared Tuesday for a competency hearing in North Carolina. A judge found that Brown is not competent to stand trial at this time but said his prognosis for being restored to competency through treatment and medication is good. The judge ordered Brown hospitalized and treated for four months, after which another hearing will be held to determine whether he is able to proceed.

Brown will remain in federal custody while receiving treatment and for the duration of the case, U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson said. The judge said that if Brown’s competency does not improve enough for him to stand trial, he would not be released because he would pose “a serious risk” to others.

Zarutska, 23, was killed on Aug. 22, 2025, on a Charlotte Area Transit System light rail train. Brown is accused of stabbing her in the neck while seated behind her. NBC News reported that video from the train shows the stabbing occurred without provocation and that Zarutska collapsed to the floor seconds later, with no visible help or concern from other passengers. She was later pronounced dead.

Brown was federally charged in September with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system, an offense that carries up to life in prison or the death penalty, according to the U.S. Justice Department. He also faces a state charge of first-degree murder in Zarutska’s killing. In April, he was deemed incapable of proceeding to trial in the state murder case on similar grounds, and The Guardian reported that an April hearing in that case was delayed until October.

The federal competency evaluation was ordered in January. A judge said Tuesday that Brown was evaluated by medical and correctional staff at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, and that on April 14 evaluators concluded he was not competent to stand trial.

The U.S. attorney’s office for the western district of North Carolina said the ruling concerns only the constitutional definition of competency: whether Brown can understand the proceedings against him and assist in his defense. “It has nothing to do with the facts of the case or the stabbing that occurred on Charlotte’s light rail,” the office said.

During Tuesday’s hearing, Brown had several outbursts, including one in which he said he wanted to sue the FBI. The judge told him to be quiet. Ferguson later told reporters that Brown has had outbursts since the case began and has made comments about “some sort of material that controls him.”

“He has to be able to understand the proceedings against him and be able to assist in his defense, and I think you saw from his actions today, he’s not quite there yet,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson said prosecutors’ goal is to seek justice for Zarutska and her family. “This case weighs on our hearts every day, and our chief concern is obtaining justice for Iryna Zarutska and her family,” he said in a statement. “This is a step in the process to ensure we have a solid case that can withstand appeal.”

After the hearing, WRAL reported, Ferguson said he is “very hopeful” Brown’s competency will be restored. “The doctor [who] examined him for the competency hearing today found that his prognosis for restoration is very good, so I rely on the doctors there,” he said. “I think the prognosis is good, and we’ll see him stand trial.”

Brown’s attorneys have said he “suffers from serious mental illness and impairments” and that examiners with the Justice Department and the federal Bureau of Prisons determined those conditions make him currently unable to proceed in the federal case. Ahead of the hearing, they submitted a letter from Brown to the court in which he wrote, “I have a body emergency. Someone has full access to my body and they are controlling me wrongfully.” He added, “When describing the technology someone was using I was misdiagnosed with schizophrenia.”