At a press conference Tuesday, United States Attorney Russ Ferguson of the Western District of North Carolina sharply denied that the filing of federal charges against the accused killer of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was “grandstanding.”
Zarutska was stabbed to death Aug. 22 on a Charlotte light rail train while returning home from work by DeCarlos Brown, a man with a lengthy criminal history who was charged with violating 18 USC 1992, a terrorism statute that makes it a federal crime to use a dangerous weapon to cause death or injury on a mass transit system. Ferguson had explained during the press conference that his office moved “quite fast” compared to normal cases to charge Brown and that there was a possibility hate crime charges could be added to the terrorism charge before a reporter asked whether politics played a role.
“I don’t see how you would see this case as political grandstanding. And if you do, you should have the conversation we just had with Iryna’s family, because there’s nothing political about that,” Ferguson said. “This is a heinous crime, and we are going to remedy it.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member