Court and law-enforcement records show multiple members of Decarlos Brown Jr.’s family have had serious encounters with the criminal-justice system.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The man accused of fatally stabbing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska aboard a Charlotte light-rail train is not the only member of his immediate family with an extensive criminal history against whites specifically.
Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr. faces both state and federal charges in connection with the August 22, 2025 killing of 23-year-old Zarutska aboard a Lynx Blue Line train.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police charged Brown with first-degree murder, while a federal grand jury later indicted him on a charge of committing an act of violence causing death on a railroad carrier and mass-transit system.
Iryna Zarutska, 23, was killed while riding Charlotte’s Lynx Blue Line on Aug. 22, 2025.
Brown’s case remains unresolved. In 2026, a federal judge found him incompetent to stand trial at that time, meaning proceedings were delayed while competency and treatment issues were addressed. He remains charged in separate state and federal cases.
But records surrounding Brown’s family reveal another striking chapter.
His brother was convicted of robbing and murdering a white man
Brown’s older brother, Stacey Dejon Brown, pleaded guilty in April 2014 to second-degree murder, two counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and breaking or entering a motor vehicle.
The Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s Office said Stacey Brown was sentenced to a combined 324 to 438 months in prison — approximately 27 to 36½ years.
The crimes involved several incidents in 2012.
According to prosecutors, Brown and another man first broke into vehicles using bricks. Months later, Brown participated in an armed robbery in which he held a victim at gunpoint with a shotgun. When that victim attempted to run, Brown shot him in the back. The man survived.
The following day, prosecutors said Brown and another man confronted 65-year-old Robert Heym, who was walking home from work in Charlotte. They robbed Heym of his cellphone, and when he resisted, Stacey Brown shot him at close range.
Heym died at the scene.
Stacey Dejon Brown
There is also an eerie connection between the two cases: published reports say Stacey Brown used Charlotte’s light-rail system while fleeing after Heym’s killing. More than a decade later, his brother would be accused of killing Zarutska aboard Charlotte’s light rail.
Their sister has also repeatedly been arrested
Their sister, Tracey Vontrea Brown, has her own documented history with law enforcement.
Mecklenburg County records cited by multiple news organizations show Tracey Brown was arrested in January 2024 for shoplifting and again in May 2024 on misdemeanor larceny and felony conspiracy allegations. Records cited in previous reporting also show arrests involving vehicle theft and resisting officers.
Tracey Vontrea Brown
A Mecklenburg County arrest record for Tracey Vontrea Brown, born Nov. 15, 1991, shows an April 17, 2026 arrest on allegations of felony hit-and-run involving injury and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill and inflict serious injury.
Her victim was white.
The same record connects that entry to her earlier 2024 Mecklenburg County arrests for larceny, felony conspiracy and shoplifting.
A family history now under renewed scrutiny
The violent criminal records paint an unusual picture: one brother serving decades for a shotgun murder, another brother now accused in one of Charlotte’s most notorious recent killings, and a sister with a lengthy arrest history that now includes serious allegations involving violence.
All of their victims were white.
Meanwhile, Zarutska’s family continues pursuing accountability.
In August 2026, her family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the City of Charlotte and its private transit-security contractor, alleging failures in security and fare enforcement contributed to the circumstances surrounding her death. Those allegations are now part of separate civil litigation.
Zarutska had fled the war in Ukraine before settling in North Carolina. She was 23 years old when she was killed.
Original article
Comments