The knifeman who allegedly killedUkrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska has spoken for the first time from jail in a harrowing phone call recorded by his sister.
Decarlos Brown, 34, was seen in surveillance footage lunging at Zarutska, 23, from behind as she sat scrolling on her phone on a train through Charlotte on August 22.
The disturbing video has sparked widespread grief, anger, and questions about public safetyin the Democrat-led city as the nation comes to terms with the horror.
Now, his sister Tracey Brown, 33, has shared shocking audio with the Daily Mail of a phone call she had with Brown six days after he was arrested, where he explained what was going through his mind when he launched the bloody attack.
The 34-year-old, who is schizophrenic, can be heard telling his sister he believed the government had planted foreign 'materials' into his brain and they had been in control of his actions when he pulled the knife on Iryna.
In the audio recording from the afternoon of August 28, Brown can be heard telling Tracey: 'I hurt my hand, stabbing her. I don't even know the lady.
'I never said not one word to the lady at all. That's scary, ain't it. Why would somebody stab somebody for no reason?'
He added he wanted police to 'investigate' the 'materials' which were 'controlling' him, while referring to the attacker in third person.
'Out of all people, why her?' Tracey asked her brother. 'She's from the Ukraine, she's from Russia, and they had a war going on against the United States, so I'm just trying to understand, of all people, why her?'
'They just lashed out on her, that's what happened,' Decarlos replied. 'Whoever was working the materials they lashed out on her. That's all there is to it.
'Now they really gotta investigate what my body was exposed to... Now they gotta do an investigation as to who was the motive behind what happened.'
Tracey, who lives in Charlotte and works as an Amazon delivery associate, also asked her brother where he was heading on the fateful train journey.
'I was going downtown to the hospital to tell them… that I'm trying to get rid of the material… to stop going crazy,' Brown replied.
During a long and candid phone call with the Daily Mail, Tracey described how Brown went from being her 'protective' older brother to an alleged killer who believed the government was controlling his brain.
Tracey also said she 'strongly' believes he should not have been on the streets, and recounted the missed opportunities North Carolina state officials had to remove him.
She said Brown had tried to get admitted to hospital several times over the past few years as his mental health deteriorated to breaking point, but medics kept discharging him after just 24 hours.
'I strongly feel like he should not have been on the streets at all,' Tracey said.
'I'm going to be honest. I'm not blaming anyone for his actions, except for the state. I'm blaming the state for letting him down as far as seeking help.
'When you have mentally ill people seeking help, and you're running tests on them, and you clearly see that you are dealing with a psychosis on an acute level, you do not let them go back into society.
'He was a high risk. He was not in his right mind. He was not safe for society.'
'We know what he has been dealing with the last three years,' she added. 'And now an innocent woman is dead.
'He was asking and crying for help, and no-one heard him or took him seriously. He reached a level of his mental illness that caused him to commit a heinous crime.'
Brown also dialed 911 several times, and told cops directly that he believed his brain was being controlled by a microchip.
During the ordeal, Brown told police he thought 'man made' materials were inside his body controlling his movements.
'Brown wanted officers to investigate this 'man-made' material that was inside of his body,' the arrest affidavit reads.
'Officers advised Brown that the issue was medical issue and that there was nothing further they could do.'
This response sent Brown into a rage, and he called 911. Officers arrested him and charged him with a misdemeanor.
'He was seeking help,' Tracey said. 'He called 911 multiple times. Instead of talking to him they thought charging him was going to help.'
Another opportunity to take Brown off the streets came when Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes was told about the case at a hearing on January 21, but she granted him cashless bail on a 'written promise' that he would return to court.
Tracey said the judge ordered a psychiatric test for him through the courts, but 'they pushed it back for a year and a half'.
She told the Daily Mail her brother first went to prison for armed robbery in 2016, and when he was released six years later he was a 'completely different person'.
'When he came home, he was not the same brother that I remember,' she said.
'He used to be quiet and self-reserved. But he wasn't that brother any more. He was still quiet, but he seemed like he was out of sorts.
'He seemed like he was not in our reality any more. He seemed distant every time I spoke with him. I think being incarcerated caused some kind of trauma.
'I could tell that he was still trying to talk like himself, but there was something there. It started coming out more and more.'
Iryna was working at Zepeddie's pizzeria in south Charlotte to pay the bills, while learning to drive to secure her independence.
The surveillance footage of her final moments on August 22 shows her wearing her unassuming work uniform - long pants with a black t-shirt and cap branded with the Zepeddie's logo.
She had been riding back from the restaurant just before 10pm that day when Decarlos lunged at her from behind with a knife, ending her life in a matter of moments.
Footage showed the moment Decarlos struck, before skipping the graphic slaughter to show him carrying a knife dripping with blood as he walked through the train carriage and another passenger sprinted away.
Not just his actions, but our mainstream media (at first) anyway.
If you watch the video, no one helped this poor girl, even after she was stabbed..
Then the mayor asked for sympathy for the knife man..
This dude has a long rap sheet of violent crimes and was recently turned loose.
Every single piece of shit in this story has one thing in common..
They thought the killing of George Floyd was the greatest crime in history, while this girl wasn't worth even mentioning..
Poor girl was safer in Ukraine..
Digger said
Sep 10 5:30 PM, 2025
Maddog wrote:
This story has pissed me off to no end.
Not just his actions, but our mainstream media (at first) anyway.
If you watch the video, no one helped this poor girl, even after she was stabbed..
Then the mayor asked for sympathy for the knife man..
This dude has a long rap sheet of violent crimes and was recently turned loose.
Every single piece of shit in this story has one thing in common..
They thought the killing of George Floyd was the greatest crime in history, while this girl wasn't worth even mentioning..
Poor girl was safer in Ukraine..
I know it's dreadful. Shame on all those morons who stood by an filmed. There's one guy sitting there so engrossed in his phone he doesn't even see it happening.
Maddog said
Sep 10 5:36 PM, 2025
The term black fatigue had been trending for months.
It's trending harder, and it's not just us gringos.
We've had it.
This poor girl didn't get welfare or assistance. She was working at a pizza place to make a living. I guarantee you the piece of shit that killed her was getting something..
Utterly shameful - from the murderer to the carriage passengers to the Mayor to Teresa Stokes* to media silence they all played a part in that young woman’s death.
* this thing needs fully investigating. It seems she had a financial interest in releasing pieces of scum back onto the streets.
Digger said
Sep 10 6:51 PM, 2025
Maddog wrote:
The term black fatigue had been trending for months.
It's trending harder, and it's not just us gringos.
We've had it.
This poor girl didn't get welfare or assistance. She was working at a pizza place to make a living. I guarantee you the piece of shit that killed her was getting something..
Not just his actions, but our mainstream media (at first) anyway.
If you watch the video, no one helped this poor girl, even after she was stabbed..
Then the mayor asked for sympathy for the knife man..
This dude has a long rap sheet of violent crimes and was recently turned loose.
Every single piece of shit in this story has one thing in common..
They thought the killing of George Floyd was the greatest crime in history, while this girl wasn't worth even mentioning..
Poor girl was safer in Ukraine..
I know it's dreadful. Shame on all those morons who stood by an filmed. There's one guy sitting there so engrossed in his phone he doesn't even see it happening.
What a disgrace, that beautiful girl slain at the hands of a madman who should not have been free to roam around causing mayhem.
And shame on the excuses for human beings who did nothing to help her, and left him free to get off the train unchallenged.
Barksdale said
Sep 10 8:28 PM, 2025
Maddog wrote:
Every single piece of shit in this story has one thing in common..
Mental illness? I note this guy has something in common with one of the killers of a British soldier on the streets of London, Lee Rigby.
No, not the colour of his skin - poorly treated schizophrenia. This is contrast with Derek Chauvin who was in possession of all his mental faculties.
Some commentators are using this story as a poorly veiled attempt to stoke a race war, to suggest that white people are being subjected to a deliberate campaign of targeting and violence by black people as they think they can get away with it. I would suggest we don't let them.
Maddog said
Sep 10 8:52 PM, 2025
Barksdale wrote:
Maddog wrote:
Every single piece of shit in this story has one thing in common..
Mental illness? I note this guy has something in common with one of the killers of a British soldier on the streets of London, Lee Rigby.
No, not the colour of his skin - poorly treated schizophrenia. This is contrast with Derek Chauvin who was in possession of all his mental faculties.
Some commentators are using this story as a poorly veiled attempt to stoke a race war, to suggest that white people are being subjected to a deliberate campaign of targeting and violence by black people as they think they can get away with it. I would suggest we don't let them.
The people on the train, the mayor and the judge all have a mental illness?
The knife man might have.
Maddog said
Sep 10 9:10 PM, 2025
And I don't think this is a race war, but the result of decades of paternalism and a lack of accountability.
It's not like white folks are the typical target of crime by black Americans. Black folks are..
Barksdale said
Sep 10 9:20 PM, 2025
Maddog wrote:
Barksdale wrote:
Maddog wrote:
Every single piece of shit in this story has one thing in common..
Mental illness? I note this guy has something in common with one of the killers of a British soldier on the streets of London, Lee Rigby.
No, not the colour of his skin - poorly treated schizophrenia. This is contrast with Derek Chauvin who was in possession of all his mental faculties.
Some commentators are using this story as a poorly veiled attempt to stoke a race war, to suggest that white people are being subjected to a deliberate campaign of targeting and violence by black people as they think they can get away with it. I would suggest we don't let them.
The people on the train, the mayor and the judge all have a mental illness?
The knife man might have.
Apologies, I got the wrong end of the stick.
I thought you were talking about "black fatigue" which generally seems like a poor attempt to incite racial division rather than an accurate observation of any kind of phenomenon.
Maddog said
Sep 10 9:46 PM, 2025
Barksdale wrote:
Maddog wrote:
Barksdale wrote:
Maddog wrote:
Every single piece of shit in this story has one thing in common..
Mental illness? I note this guy has something in common with one of the killers of a British soldier on the streets of London, Lee Rigby.
No, not the colour of his skin - poorly treated schizophrenia. This is contrast with Derek Chauvin who was in possession of all his mental faculties.
Some commentators are using this story as a poorly veiled attempt to stoke a race war, to suggest that white people are being subjected to a deliberate campaign of targeting and violence by black people as they think they can get away with it. I would suggest we don't let them.
The people on the train, the mayor and the judge all have a mental illness?
The knife man might have.
Apologies, I got the wrong end of the stick.
I thought you were talking about "black fatigue" which generally seems like a poor attempt to incite racial division rather than an accurate observation of any kind of phenomenon.
I think black fatigue is an attempt to shame people into acting like civilized humans.
And it's real. People just remove themselves from trying to deal with people who can't. It's not hatred or anything like that. It's creating boundaries for your own mental health.
Maddog said
Sep 10 9:51 PM, 2025
Or in the case of this Ukrainian woman, her physical health.
Fluffy said
Sep 10 10:48 PM, 2025
Barksdale wrote:
Maddog wrote:
Every single piece of shit in this story has one thing in common..
Mental illness? I note this guy has something in common with one of the killers of a British soldier on the streets of London, Lee Rigby.
No, not the colour of his skin - poorly treated schizophrenia.
Totally agree with the BIB in your post.
There is mental illness and then there is schizophrenia. It is by far the most serious mental illness where hallucinations and delusions plague the individual which mentally sound people without the illness cannot even imagine.
This young lady has had her whole life snatched away from her by her assailant but the authorities and mental health services (and the bystanders who sat mute) must also take quite a hefty chunk of the blame.People with severe mental health difficulties who.are a danger to others or themselves should not be roaming the streets because sadly tragedies like this will occur.
-- Edited by Fluffy on Wednesday 10th of September 2025 10:52:17 PM
Magica said
Sep 11 12:13 AM, 2025
He said something like I got a white, words to that effect.
He was racist and if the boot had been on the other foot all the blacks would have kicked off.
The poor girl sitting there alone, then up he jumps, stabs her 3 times in her neck whilst no one did a damn thing! Even took a video. No help for her!
Hope he dies in prison, but I bet he gets nutted off and out again a few years!
Maddog said
Sep 11 12:19 AM, 2025
Magica wrote:
He said something like I got a white, words to that effect.
He was racist and if the boot had been on the other foot all the blacks would have kicked off.
The poor girl sitting there alone, then up he jumps, stabs her 3 times in her neck whilst no one did a damn thing! Even took a video. No help for her!
Hope he dies in prison, but I bet he gets nutted off and out again a few years!
He's getting charged by the Feds and they are seeking the death penalty.
He won't ever get out..
Magica said
Sep 11 5:42 AM, 2025
Maddog wrote:
Magica wrote:
He said something like I got a white, words to that effect.
He was racist and if the boot had been on the other foot all the blacks would have kicked off.
The poor girl sitting there alone, then up he jumps, stabs her 3 times in her neck whilst no one did a damn thing! Even took a video. No help for her!
Hope he dies in prison, but I bet he gets nutted off and out again a few years!
He's getting charged by the Feds and they are seeking the death penalty.
He won't ever get out..
Hope so. That poor girl 😪
Digger said
Sep 11 3:40 PM, 2025
They should show this to the jury, just to remind them how heinous that crime was.
They should show this to the jury, just to remind them how heinous that crime was.
When black get killed-murdered by white it’s “racism” when it’s reversed it’s “mental illness”. No one taking the knee or talk of erecting statues for this young lady…although Musk, and the obnoxious Tate, has offered up a $1mill donation apiece for murals to be painted. How long before those paintings will be deemed offensive and racist?
Something very wrong with a large part of society who more or less canonise a thug and yet show little regard in comparison to an innocent woman making her way home.
The knifeman who allegedly killed Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska has spoken for the first time from jail in a harrowing phone call recorded by his sister.
Decarlos Brown, 34, was seen in surveillance footage lunging at Zarutska, 23, from behind as she sat scrolling on her phone on a train through Charlotte on August 22.
The disturbing video has sparked widespread grief, anger, and questions about public safety in the Democrat-led city as the nation comes to terms with the horror.
Now, his sister Tracey Brown, 33, has shared shocking audio with the Daily Mail of a phone call she had with Brown six days after he was arrested, where he explained what was going through his mind when he launched the bloody attack.
The 34-year-old, who is schizophrenic, can be heard telling his sister he believed the government had planted foreign 'materials' into his brain and they had been in control of his actions when he pulled the knife on Iryna.
In the audio recording from the afternoon of August 28, Brown can be heard telling Tracey: 'I hurt my hand, stabbing her. I don't even know the lady.
'I never said not one word to the lady at all. That's scary, ain't it. Why would somebody stab somebody for no reason?'
He added he wanted police to 'investigate' the 'materials' which were 'controlling' him, while referring to the attacker in third person.
'Out of all people, why her?' Tracey asked her brother. 'She's from the Ukraine, she's from Russia, and they had a war going on against the United States, so I'm just trying to understand, of all people, why her?'
'They just lashed out on her, that's what happened,' Decarlos replied. 'Whoever was working the materials they lashed out on her. That's all there is to it.
'Now they really gotta investigate what my body was exposed to... Now they gotta do an investigation as to who was the motive behind what happened.'
Tracey, who lives in Charlotte and works as an Amazon delivery associate, also asked her brother where he was heading on the fateful train journey.
'I was going downtown to the hospital to tell them… that I'm trying to get rid of the material… to stop going crazy,' Brown replied.
During a long and candid phone call with the Daily Mail, Tracey described how Brown went from being her 'protective' older brother to an alleged killer who believed the government was controlling his brain.
Tracey also said she 'strongly' believes he should not have been on the streets, and recounted the missed opportunities North Carolina state officials had to remove him.
She said Brown had tried to get admitted to hospital several times over the past few years as his mental health deteriorated to breaking point, but medics kept discharging him after just 24 hours.
'I strongly feel like he should not have been on the streets at all,' Tracey said.
'I'm going to be honest. I'm not blaming anyone for his actions, except for the state. I'm blaming the state for letting him down as far as seeking help.
'When you have mentally ill people seeking help, and you're running tests on them, and you clearly see that you are dealing with a psychosis on an acute level, you do not let them go back into society.
'He was a high risk. He was not in his right mind. He was not safe for society.'
'We know what he has been dealing with the last three years,' she added. 'And now an innocent woman is dead.
'He was asking and crying for help, and no-one heard him or took him seriously. He reached a level of his mental illness that caused him to commit a heinous crime.'
Brown also dialed 911 several times, and told cops directly that he believed his brain was being controlled by a microchip.
During the ordeal, Brown told police he thought 'man made' materials were inside his body controlling his movements.
'Brown wanted officers to investigate this 'man-made' material that was inside of his body,' the arrest affidavit reads.
'Officers advised Brown that the issue was medical issue and that there was nothing further they could do.'
This response sent Brown into a rage, and he called 911. Officers arrested him and charged him with a misdemeanor.
'He was seeking help,' Tracey said. 'He called 911 multiple times. Instead of talking to him they thought charging him was going to help.'
Another opportunity to take Brown off the streets came when Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes was told about the case at a hearing on January 21, but she granted him cashless bail on a 'written promise' that he would return to court.
Tracey said the judge ordered a psychiatric test for him through the courts, but 'they pushed it back for a year and a half'.
She told the Daily Mail her brother first went to prison for armed robbery in 2016, and when he was released six years later he was a 'completely different person'.
'When he came home, he was not the same brother that I remember,' she said.
'He used to be quiet and self-reserved. But he wasn't that brother any more. He was still quiet, but he seemed like he was out of sorts.
'He seemed like he was not in our reality any more. He seemed distant every time I spoke with him. I think being incarcerated caused some kind of trauma.
'I could tell that he was still trying to talk like himself, but there was something there. It started coming out more and more.'
Iryna was working at Zepeddie's pizzeria in south Charlotte to pay the bills, while learning to drive to secure her independence.
The surveillance footage of her final moments on August 22 shows her wearing her unassuming work uniform - long pants with a black t-shirt and cap branded with the Zepeddie's logo.
She had been riding back from the restaurant just before 10pm that day when Decarlos lunged at her from behind with a knife, ending her life in a matter of moments.
Footage showed the moment Decarlos struck, before skipping the graphic slaughter to show him carrying a knife dripping with blood as he walked through the train carriage and another passenger sprinted away.
Not just his actions, but our mainstream media (at first) anyway.
If you watch the video, no one helped this poor girl, even after she was stabbed..
Then the mayor asked for sympathy for the knife man..
This dude has a long rap sheet of violent crimes and was recently turned loose.
Every single piece of shit in this story has one thing in common..
They thought the killing of George Floyd was the greatest crime in history, while this girl wasn't worth even mentioning..
Poor girl was safer in Ukraine..
I know it's dreadful. Shame on all those morons who stood by an filmed. There's one guy sitting there so engrossed in his phone he doesn't even see it happening.
It's trending harder, and it's not just us gringos.
We've had it.
This poor girl didn't get welfare or assistance. She was working at a pizza place to make a living. I guarantee you the piece of shit that killed her was getting something..
We don't want to hear about slavery anymore.
Or systemic racism..
Or who's life fucking matters..
There are hundreds of videos like this one..
youtube.com/shorts/uga-6BFH-VM
We are fucking done.
Utterly shameful - from the murderer to the carriage passengers to the Mayor to Teresa Stokes* to media silence they all played a part in that young woman’s death.
* this thing needs fully investigating. It seems she had a financial interest in releasing pieces of scum back onto the streets.
When you flog a horse to death, it dies.
What a disgrace, that beautiful girl slain at the hands of a madman who should not have been free to roam around causing mayhem.
And shame on the excuses for human beings who did nothing to help her, and left him free to get off the train unchallenged.
Mental illness? I note this guy has something in common with one of the killers of a British soldier on the streets of London, Lee Rigby.
No, not the colour of his skin - poorly treated schizophrenia. This is contrast with Derek Chauvin who was in possession of all his mental faculties.
Some commentators are using this story as a poorly veiled attempt to stoke a race war, to suggest that white people are being subjected to a deliberate campaign of targeting and violence by black people as they think they can get away with it. I would suggest we don't let them.
The people on the train, the mayor and the judge all have a mental illness?
The knife man might have.
It's not like white folks are the typical target of crime by black Americans. Black folks are..
Apologies, I got the wrong end of the stick.
I thought you were talking about "black fatigue" which generally seems like a poor attempt to incite racial division rather than an accurate observation of any kind of phenomenon.
I think black fatigue is an attempt to shame people into acting like civilized humans.
And it's real. People just remove themselves from trying to deal with people who can't. It's not hatred or anything like that. It's creating boundaries for your own mental health.
Totally agree with the BIB in your post.
There is mental illness and then there is schizophrenia. It is by far the most serious mental illness where hallucinations and delusions plague the individual which mentally sound people without the illness cannot even imagine.
This young lady has had her whole life snatched away from her by her assailant but the authorities and mental health services (and the bystanders who sat mute) must also take quite a hefty chunk of the blame.People with severe mental health difficulties who.are a danger to others or themselves should not be roaming the streets because sadly tragedies like this will occur.
-- Edited by Fluffy on Wednesday 10th of September 2025 10:52:17 PM
He was racist and if the boot had been on the other foot all the blacks would have kicked off.
The poor girl sitting there alone, then up he jumps, stabs her 3 times in her neck whilst no one did a damn thing! Even took a video. No help for her!
Hope he dies in prison, but I bet he gets nutted off and out again a few years!
He's getting charged by the Feds and they are seeking the death penalty.
He won't ever get out..
Hope so. That poor girl 😪
They should show this to the jury, just to remind them how heinous that crime was.
When black get killed-murdered by white it’s “racism” when it’s reversed it’s “mental illness”. No one taking the knee or talk of erecting statues for this young lady…although Musk, and the obnoxious Tate, has offered up a $1mill donation apiece for murals to be painted. How long before those paintings will be deemed offensive and racist?
Something very wrong with a large part of society who more or less canonise a thug and yet show little regard in comparison to an innocent woman making her way home.