A North Carolina man accused in the deadly, caught-on-camera stabbing of a Ukrainian war refugee in Charlotte could receive the death penalty after federal prosecutors brought charges against the ex-con with a lengthy rap sheet.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said prosecutors filed one count of causing death on a mass-transportation system against Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., 34, on Tuesday.

The repeat offender is accused of killing 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska in a random Aug. 22 attack on a light-rail train.

“I have directed my attorneys to federally prosecute Decarlos Brown Jr., a repeat violent offender with a history of violent crime, for murder,” Ms. Bondi said in a statement. “We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable crime, and he will never again see the light of day as a free man.”

The suspect, who had been arrested at least 14 times since 2011 and served a stint in prison, already had been charged by the Mecklenburg County district attorney with first-degree murder under state law.

Federal capital-murder charges have been filed in such recent cases as the Israeli Embassy staffers and the New York health-insurance CEO because the local jurisdictions do not have the death penalty.

But in this case, North Carolina does, though it hasn’t executed anyone since 2006 due to legal challenges.

Russ Ferguson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, said that federal authorities learned more details about the victim after speaking on the phone with her mother and uncle prior to filing the criminal complaint in U.S. District Court in Charlotte.

“She literally came to the United States from a bomb shelter in Ukraine to escape the war,” Mr. Ferguson said. “She was going about her day. She was coming home from work on a light-rail train, like all of us do all the time, and she was brutally murdered.”

FBI Special Agent-in-Charge James Barnacle said that “she chose Charlotte to escape the violence of her war-torn home in Ukraine,” securing a work permit and finding a job on the first day she was allowed to be employed legally.

She juggled jobs at a senior citizens’ center and a pizzeria, and took care of her neighbors’ pets.

“She was building her young life,” Mr. Barnacle said. “She had recently moved in with her partner. Her family let us know she graduated from college in Kyiv with a degree in art and restoration.”

Surveillance video showed the young woman entering the train car and taking a seat in front of the suspect.

Four minutes later, without any provocation, he pulled out a knife and stabbed her three times, then walked through the train car with the knife at his side, dripping blood on the floor.

Mr. Ferguson said the death penalty could be considered under the statute.

Brown, who is homeless and has reportedly been diagnosed with schizophrenia, is currently undergoing a competency evaluation.

“This brutal attack on an innocent woman simply trying to get to her destination is an attack on the American way of life,” Mr. Ferguson said.

The brutal assault rocketed into the national spotlight Friday after transit authorities released surveillance video of the attack, which quickly went viral.

The addition of federal charges came as the Trump administration turned up the heat on Democrats, blaming progressive policies like cashless bail for allowing a repeat violent offender to go free despite 14 arrests.

“For far too long, Americans have been forced to put up with Democrat-run cities that set loose savage, bloodthirsty criminals to prey on innocent people,” Mr. Trump said in a video released Tuesday by the White House.

Brown had been previously arrested for crimes including armed robbery, felony larceny, breaking and entering, and shoplifting. He was released from prison in 2020 after serving five years for robbery with a dangerous weapon.

Even so, Brown was released in January by a Mecklenburg County magistrate judge on a “written promise” to appear back in court after being arrested for misuse of the 911 system.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that relying on a career criminal to keep such a promise is “crazy.”

“This is madness. The monster should have been locked up and Iryna should still be alive,” Ms. Leavitt said. “But Democrat politicians, liberal judges and weak prosecutors would rather virtue-signal than lock up criminals and protect their communities.”

Tracey Brown, the suspect’s sister, told CNN that she asked her brother why he did it.

“Because she was reading my mind,” was his reply, she said.

The possibility of a racial motive was raised Tuesday after social media commentators said audio from the surveillance video appears to show the suspect, who is Black, muttering, “I got that White girl, got that White girl.”

Asked whether the suspect made the comment, Mr. Barnacle said that the case is still under investigation.

“We are still investigating. Obviously, we have the videotape. We have some other evidence as well,” he said. “Our investigators who are sitting here in the front row are looking at other angles, as Mr. Ferguson said. There’s potential for other federal charges. So we’ll just let the investigation play out.”

Mr. Ferguson added that investigators are “looking into every available charge in this case.”

“If we find facts that this was gender-motivated or race-motivated, we’ll absolutely bring a federal civil-rights charge in this case. If the facts don’t show that, we won’t,” he said.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.

• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.