Sister of Suspect in Iryna Zarutska’s Killing Says He Was Crying for Help
Tracey Brown, sister of Decarlos Brown Jr., says her brother battled severe mental illness for years and warned of his declining state long before the fatal Charlotte light rail stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska.
“He was not safe. He was a high risk. We knew it. The state failed him. And now an innocent woman is dead,” Tracey said.
She described her brother as a paranoid schizophrenic who believed the government had implanted a chip in his body. In a jail call, he claimed it wasn’t truly him who killed Zarutska, but “the material in his body.”
Tracey herself was assaulted by Decarlos in 2022 and said his condition deteriorated rapidly after his release from prison. He became increasingly aggressive, unable to keep a job or carry coherent conversations.
Despite her efforts to get him long-term care, she was told she couldn’t act because she wasn’t his legal guardian.
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