Topline
President Donald Trump called for the suspect in the killing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska to face the death penalty Wednesday after the alleged attacker was charged Tuesday under federal law, which makes him eligible for capital punishment.
Calling the suspect an “ANIMAL,” Trump said he should be given a “Quick” trial and “only awarded THE DEATH PENALTY” in a post on Truth Social.
The attacker, Decarlos Brown Jr., is accused of stabbing 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train on Aug. 22 in an unprovoked attack that has become heavily politicized on the right.
The Trump administration has used the murder as the latest justification for its calls for crime crackdowns in major cities, pointing to Brown’s criminal record to argue Democrat policies have failed to stop repeat offenders.
The Justice Department charged Brown, 34, on Wednesday with committing an act causing a death on a mass transportation system, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of the death penalty. He is also charged with first-degree murder in North Carolina. Trump has repeatedly called for a reinstatement of the death penalty and said last month his administration would seek the punishment for anyone accused of murder in Washington, D.C., where he recently sent in federal troops and took over the city’s police department. The Trump administration has sought to paint big cities as overrun with crime and homelessness, despite a recent decrease in crime nationwide.
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