The family of slain Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska has filed a lawsuit seeking damages from the City of Charlotte, North Carolina.
The lawsuit argues that Zarutska’s death was preventable. “Defendants failed to use reasonable and available safety measures, including fare enforcement, physical access barriers, adequate staffing, effective security deployment, monitoring, and passenger warnings,” wrote Zarutska’s uncle, Frank Scott Haskell. “Defendants were responsible for protecting lawful passengers from known and foreseeable dangers, and their failures caused the fatal stabbing of Iryna Zarutska inside the train.”
“Defendant city of Charlotte owed Iryna Zarutska, fare-paying passenger, the highest degree of care for her safety consistent with the practical operation of the light rail system, and was bound to exercise that degree of care in the operation, staffing, monitoring, and securing of the Blue Line light rail cars,” he added.
Zarutska was killed while riding the city’s transportation system. The man accused of stabbing the refugee, Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., has been found to be mentally incompetent to stand trial. According to the report, Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr. was considered “incapable to proceed” following a December psychiatric evaluation. The finding was revealed this week. Brown previously told authorities he was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
President Donald Trump released a video statement last year condemning the policies within Democrat-run cities following the death of Zarutska. “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. And they’ve adopted a policy of catch and release for thugs and killers. In Charlotte, North Carolina, we saw the results of these policies when a 23-year-old woman who came here from Ukraine, met her bloody end on a public train,” Trump said.
Discussing the horror of her death, the president stated, “We cannot allow a depraved criminal element of violent repeat offenders to continue spreading destruction and death throughout our country. We have to respond with force and strength. We have to be vicious, just like they are. It’s the only thing they understand.”
