Suspects in separate Charlotte, North Carolina, train stabbings appear in federal court

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The man accused of killing a Ukrainian refugee on a commuter train in North Carolina's largest city appeared in court on a federal count Thursday, hours before the government announced a similar charge against a different man for an unrelated, non-fatal stabbing on the same light rail system.

Decarlos Brown Jr. and his attorneys made an initial court appearance in a Charlotte courtroom on the count of causing death on a mass transportation system. Shackled from his hands and ankles and wearing a jumpsuit, Brown kept his head up looking at U.S. District Judge Susan Rodriguez as she read the charge against him.

Authorities accuse Brown, 35, of stabbing 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail car in August, in an apparently random attack captured on video.

Brown is also charged with first-degree murder for Zarutska's death in state court, but federal prosecutors stepped in after growing questions about why Brown was on the street despite more than a dozen prior criminal arrests. Like the state case, Brown could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted in federal court.

Second light-rail attack

The federal and state cases are running parallel, as they are now for a Honduran man already charged in state court on attempted first-degree murder and other counts for stabbing a man in the chest during a fight last week. The victim was hospitalized.

The suspect in the Dec. 5 violence, identified by federal authorities as Oscar Gerardo Solorzano-Garcia, 33, also was charged Thursday with committing an act of violence on a mass transportation system and illegal reentry into the country by someone previously removed, according to court documents.

''Everyone who rides the light rail is a victim of this crime,'' Ferguson said, adding that mass transportation systems ''belong to the public. They must be safe, they must be accessible, and they must be free from threats."

The electronic federal court system listed no attorney's name on Thursday for Solorzano-Garcia, who is being held without bond in the Mecklenburg County Jail. The attorney listed for his state court case didn't immediately respond Thursday to a phone message or an email.

An FBI agent's affidavit supporting Thursday's charges described Solorzano-Garcia as a train passenger who appeared to be intoxicated. He and another passenger engaged in a verbal altercation, and the suspect pulled out a knife at least 12 inches (30.5 centimeters) long and stabbed the passenger, who then received aid from fellow passengers, the agent says. The defendant left the train and was arrested by police shortly after.

Solorzano-Garcia was transported out the country in both 2018 and 2021 — having been convicted in 2019 of illegal reentry into the U.S. and sentenced to 18 months in prison — and has recently resided in Charlotte, according to the FBI affidavit.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a news release that Solorzano-Garcia ''should not have been in our country to begin with.'' The suspect was convicted of robbery in New Jersey in 2013, the affidavit said.

President Donald Trump's administration used Brown's case show how it thinks local leaders, judges and policies in Democratic-led cities like Charlotte are failing to protect their residents from violent crime.

U.S. attorneys charged Brown on a criminal complaint in September, with an indictment following on the same count weeks later.

Brown, who remains held by authorities, didn't speak during Thursday's hearing.

Brown's attorneys filed a motion this week seeking for Brown to undergo a psychiatric examination and a future hearing to determine his competency to face the federal charge against him or possibly the death penalty. They say it should happen after a similar review in the state legal proceedings is completed, likely by the end of January.

''Counsel have serious concerns about Mr. Brown's ability to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him or to assist properly in his defense,'' the lawyers wrote.

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