The U.S. Department of Justice on Sept. 9 charged 34-year-old Decarlos Brown with the murder of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was fatally stabbed aboard a train in North Carolina last month, Reuters reported.

Brown now faces a federal charge of murder committed on public transportation, in addition to an earlier state charge of first-degree murder.

Zarutska, who came to the U.S. in 2022 after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, was killed on Aug. 22. On Sept. 5, video footage showing Brown stabbing her in the throat surfaced online and was circulated by conservative commentators as alleged evidence of rising crime in Democrat-led cities.

While both charges are eligible for the death penalty, North Carolina has not executed since 2006, and the federal government last conducted executions in 2021, according to Reuters.

“Iryna Zarutska was a young woman living the American dream — her horrific murder is a direct result of failed soft-on-crime policies that put criminals before innocent people,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement.

“We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence — he will never again see the light of day as a free man,” Bondi added.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has blamed Democratic criminal justice policies for the killing of the Ukrainian woman, called on Sept. 10 for a swift trial and the death penalty for Brown.

“There can be no other option,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Intercom CEO Eoghan McCabe, who was one of the donors to Trump’s presidential campaign, proposed on X commissioning murals of Zarutska in prominent American cities.

McCabe pledged $500,000 in grants of $10,000 each to support the initiative. Tech billionaire Elon Musk responded to the post, expressing support and offering to contribute $1 million toward the project.

In recent days, Musk, along with several conservative English-speaking commentators and some White House officials, has repeatedly posted about Zarutska’s killing. At the same time, he has shared content claiming that there is a correlation between race and crime rates.

Brown, who is African American, has a history of arrests and pleaded guilty to armed robbery in 2014, serving six years in prison.

His mother told local media that he had previously been involuntarily hospitalized and diagnosed with schizophrenia.

After his arrest on murder charges, a judge ordered Brown to undergo a psychiatric evaluation at a hospital for at least 60 days, according to court records.

Read also: How the right wing in US, Europe is weaponizing murders of Ukrainian refugees

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