Trump calls for killer of Iryna Zarutskaya to face death penalty
US President Donald Trump has called for capital punishment for Decarlos Brown, who brutally stabbed a 23-year-old Ukrainian woman on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina last month.
The incident came into the national spotlight after the CCTV video of the grisly incident was released over the weekend. In it, the 34-year-old perpetrator is seen attacking Iryna Zarutskaya from behind, stabbing her several times in the neck shortly after she took a seat. The woman bled out and died at the scene soon thereafter.
The assault was apparently unprovoked, with no exchange between the two preceding the stabbing, judging by the footage.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, Trump wrote: “The ANIMAL who so violently killed the beautiful young lady from Ukraine… should be given a ‘Quick’ (there is no doubt!) Trial, and only awarded THE DEATH PENALTY.”
On Monday, the US president described Brown as a “mentally deranged lunatic,” pointing out that the man had been arrested multiple times over the past decade but repeatedly ended up being released on cashless bail.
Trump declared that the “blood of this innocent woman… is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail.”
Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that since 2011, Brown has been charged with armed robbery, felony larceny, breaking and entering, and forfeited bonds at least three times.
However, after being arrested again in January, the man was released by a Democratic judge on condition that he “sign a written promise to return for his court hearing.”
“Democrats in North Carolina and nationwide are consumed with pushing a woke, soft on-crime agenda no matter how many innocent Americans suffer as a result,” Leavitt said.
In August, Trump ordered the deployment of National Guard troops to assist the police in Washington DC, citing high levels of violent crime. Local Democrats were quick to criticize the decision.
Last week, the US president hinted that he could do the same in Chicago, similarly drawing massive pushback from Democrats.
