Iryna Zarutska’s Family Sues City Of Charlotte Over Fatal Rail Stabbing, Claims Inadequate Security

The family of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was fatally stabbed on a North Carolina light rail train last year, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Charlotte and a private security firm.

The lawsuit, filed on Aug. 21, alleges that Zarutska’s death was entirely preventable. It claims the city and Professional Police Services – a security company contracted by the Charlotte Area Transit System – failed to implement reasonable safety measures despite being well aware of violent crime along the 9.6-mile LYNX Blue Line.

According to the complaint, long before Zarutska boarded the train, the defendants “knew that violent crime had repeatedly occurred on and around the Blue Line and the Charlotte Transportation Center.”

Despite this knowledge, the lawsuit states the defendants “failed to use reasonable and available safety measures, including fare enforcement, physical access barriers, adequate staffing, effective security deployment, monitoring, and passenger warnings.”

“Defendants were responsible for protecting lawful passengers from known and foreseeable dangers, and their failures caused the fatal stabbing of Iryna Zarutska inside the train,” the filing adds.

The family claims that Professional Police Services left critical security vacancies unfilled. Because of this severe understaffing, the suit claims the firm was left “without the capacity to deploy security personnel to the Blue Line light rail cars at the times and locations where defendants knew violent crime was concentrated.”

As a result, the defendants allegedly failed to stop unticketed and dangerous individuals from boarding, failed to adequately patrol the cars, and ultimately failed to protect lawful passengers like Zarutska from “reasonably foreseeable criminal attacks.”

As the Epoch Times notes further, Zarutska was killed on Aug. 22, 2025, while riding the city’s light rail, minutes after taking a seat in front of the man accused of attacking her, according to police. Her family said she had recently fled war-torn Ukraine and settled in Charlotte.

The Charlotte Area Transit System released the footage showing Zarutska boarding the Lynx Blue Line around 9:45 p.m. on Aug. 22, wearing a pizzeria uniform and scrolling on her phone. A man, Decarlos Brown Jr, in a red hoodie was seated behind her. About four minutes later, he pulled out a knife and stabbed her several times, including at least once in the neck.

After the sudden assault, nearby passengers did not physically intervene or immediately render medical assistance as she sat in shock and eventually collapsed.

She was pronounced dead at the scene.

In June, a federal judge deemed Brown incompetent to stand trial for Zarutska’s fatal train stabbing.

Brown, 34, who had a criminal history and had previously been committed for schizophrenia, was committed to a federal facility for treatment for up to four months in an attempt to restore competency, Judge Kenneth D. Bell said in his order on June 9.

After Brown’s time in the treatment facility, the court will again take up the case to determine whether he is considered competent. If he is found competent, the murder case will resume.

If he is not found competent and the court finds he cannot be restored to competency, the court will rule on further treatment.

Brown was charged with one count of Violence Against a Railroad Carrier and Mass Transportation System Resulting in Death. If convicted, the defendant faces the death penalty.

The attack garnered international attention at the time, including from President Donald Trump, who said that Brown should get the death penalty.

“There can be no other option!” he said in a Sept. 10, 2025, Truth Social post.

The Epoch Times has contacted the City of Charlotte and Professional Police Services for comment.

Tom Ozimek and Savannah Hulsey Pointer contributed to this report.