Donald Trump reacts to Charlotte light rail stabbing and other 'horrible killings'

Danielle Battaglia, The Charlotte Observer on Sep 8, 2025

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump weighed in Monday on the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Iryna Zarutska, 23, died Aug. 22 after being stabbed in the throat by a stranger who was riding behind her on the Lynx Blue Line in Charlotte. Police identified the suspect in her death as 35-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr., who has since been arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

News of Zarutska’s death drew national reaction this weekend after the Charlotte Area Transit System released gruesome video of the unprovoked stabbing that was then aired by local and national media. The Charlotte Observer chose not to publish the footage due to its violent nature.

“There are evil people and we have to confront that,” Trump said during a meeting of a commission on religious liberty. “I just give my love and hope to the family of the young woman who was stabbed (Aug. 22) in Charlotte by a madman, a lunatic, just got up and started to — it’s right on tape, not really watchable because it’s so horrible. But just viciously stabbed, she’s just sitting there. So they’re evil people. We have to be able to handle that. If we don’t handle that we don’t have a country.”

Later in the speech, after denouncing hate crimes against Christians, Jews and others, Trump again referenced the “horrible killing” in Charlotte “and so many others. And we will — we’re going to get to the end of it.”

“And when you have horrible killings, you have to take horrible actions. And the actions that we take are nothing.” He went on to denounce cashless bail and officials in cities like Chicago.

Zarutska emigrated to the United States from Kyiv, Ukraine, to escape the violence from Russia’s invasion of her country, her family wrote on a GoFundMe account.

The video shows Zarutska sit in a seat in front of Brown, who fixates on her and after several minutes pulls out a knife and stabs her several times in the neck, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.

He exited the train at the next stop, but witnesses pointed him out to police.

Brown has a long history of being charged with crimes including felony larceny, robbery with a dangerous weapon and communicating threats, but almost all of those charges were dropped, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.

Trump was first asked about Zarutska’s death as he left Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C., on Sunday night.

He said it sounded “horrible,” and although he hadn’t yet heard about her death, he would by Monday morning.

By then several national leaders had already weighed in on her death.

Rep. Mark Harris, a Republican from Charlotte, called violence in Charlotte a “microcosm of a national epidemic.”

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said, “Safety needs to be the top priority of elected officials. Citizens don’t want federal dollars going to public transportation that local leaders refuse to keep safe!”

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