Family of Ukrainian woman stabbed on light rail sues city

The family of a refugee who was stabbed to death on a Charlotte light rail car says she would be alive if the city had been more proactive at preventing criminal activity.CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CN) — The estate of Iryna Zarutska filed suit against the city of Charlotte Friday, claiming the city negligently caused the death of the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee.23-year-old Zarutska was murdered in August of last year while taking the Lynx Blue Line on the light rail in Charlotte. The case attracted national attention after the Charlotte Area Transit System released footage of the stabbing.Charlotte and security vendor Professional Police Services Inc. were negligent, Zarutska’s uncle Frank Scott Haskell — administrator of her estate — said in the wrongful death complaint.“Defendants failed to use reasonable and available safety measures, including fare enforcement, physical access barriers, adequate staffing, effective security deployment, monitoring, and passenger warnings,” he said. “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.”Haskell said the city knew of a pattern of violent crime along the Blue Line but had cut armed security from 68 to 88 staff in 2018 to “up to 39” in 2025.He said staffing was insufficient to cover all train cars, and Professional Police Services failed to fill vacancies, leaving the city “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.”Haskell cited four homicides between December 2024 and Zarutska’s August 2025 death, along with reports of sexual assault, armed robbery and a person being bitten. Despite the violence, he said the city failed to adequately train security to prevent it.“Defendant city of Charlotte owed Iryna Zarutska, fare-paying passenger, the highest degree of care for her safety consistent with the practical operation of the light rail system, and was bound to exercise that degree of care in the operation, staffing, monitoring, and securing of the Blue Line light rail cars,” he wrote.Haskell said the city failed to verify Professional Police Services’ staffing after transferring armed security duties to the company, leaving the transit system understaffed. He also cited a lack of real-time coordination with law enforcement and train monitoring.The city also did not actively enforce fares. A report by the state auditor found fare enforcement had declined because light rail operations were not tasked with fare collection, and stops lacked turnstiles or gates. Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., 34, the suspect in Zarutska’s death, did not have a ticket the night she was stabbed.Having a physical barrier at the light rail stations “would have prevented Iryna Zarutska’s death,” Haskell said, “because Decarlos Brown Jr. would not have been permitted to board the light rail on August 22, 2025.”Zarutska loved animals and earned a degree in art and restoration from a college in Kyiv, her family said. She hoped to become a veterinary assistant and had quickly learned English, was learning to drive and enjoyed sculpting and designing clothes. She came to North Carolina after fleeing the Russo-Ukrainian war.Brown faces state charges of first-degree murder and a federal charge of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. He is temporarily hospitalized after a psychologist found he lacked the competency to understand his legal situation and is expected back in court within months to determine whether he is fit to stand trial.If found unable to stand trial, Brown will likely remain hospitalized or be held in a secure prison medical facility.Brown, who is identified in court filings as homeless, was arrested in January 2025 for misusing the 911 system, but was released from jail after signing a written promise to appear in court. He has a criminal record that includes breaking and entering and larceny, and in 2015 served five years in prison for robbery with a dangerous weapon.His family has said that after he was released from prison in 2020, he refused to take medication for schizophrenia. His mother previously got court assistance to admit him to a mental health facility, but he was released after 14 days and thereafter became homeless.The White House has called Zarutska’s death “a shocking act of evil that didn’t have to happen” and said that state prosecutors and judges failed to protect the public by releasing him. State lawmakers tightened pretrial release standards for violent offenders a month after her death, and expanded sentencing protections and increased prosecutorial staffing.Representatives for the city of Charlotte declined to comment, while Professional Police Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads