Accused killer Decarlos Brown Jr. told his sister from prison that he stabbed Iryna Zarutska to death on the Charlotte light rail because he believed the young woman was reading his mind.
According to Tracey Brown, who was bitten by her older brother in a 2022 attack, he is a paranoid schizophrenic who believes the government implanted a chip in him.
"A person that is hearing voices in their head and believes the world is against them, they're going to break," she told CNN. "And I think that night he broke."
In audio of Brown's Aug. 28 phone conversation with his sister, which was obtained by the Daily Mail, he can be heard explaining why he attacked the Ukrainian refugee, saying that "the material in his body" had killed Zarutska, not him.
"I hurt my hand, stabbing her," Brown says on the call, which took place six days after the murder. "I don't even know the lady. I never said not one word to the lady at all. That's scary, ain't it. Why would somebody stab somebody for no reason?"
"Out of all people, why her?" Tracey asks. "She's from the Ukraine, she's from Russia, and they had a war going on against the United States, so I'm just trying to understand, of all people, why her?"
"They just lashed out on her, that's what happened," Brown responds. "Whoever was working the materials, they lashed out on her. That's all there is to it. Now they really gotta investigate what my body was exposed to ... Now they gotta do an investigation as to who was the motive behind what happened."
Their mother tried to get Brown placed in a long-term mental care facility, Tracey told CNN, but her attempts to get him help failed because she was not his legal guardian.
Brown served more than five years in prison for armed robbery and after he was released in 2020, Tracey said he "didn't seem like himself." He struggled to hold simple conversations, couldn't keep a job, and would sometimes become aggressive.
His younger sister said that Brown was failed by the state and was "not safe" to be out on the streets.
"He was a high risk," Tracey told the Mail. "He was not in his right mind. He was not safe for society. We know what he has been dealing with the last three years. And now an innocent woman is dead."
Court documents show that Brown was arrested on Jan. 19 after asking police to investigate a "man-made" material that controlled when he ate, walked, and talked.
"Officers advised Brown that the issue was a medical issue and that there was nothing further they could do," the affidavit states. Brown then became enraged and was arrested and charged with "misuse of the 911 system."
Tracey says her brother "was seeking help" when he called 911 "multiple times."
"Instead of talking to him, they thought charging him was going to help," she said.
Brown is in state custody awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges, but federal officials announced on Tuesday that he has been charged with the federal crime of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. The maximum penalty for the federal charge is life imprisonment without parole or the death penalty.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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