US judge finds man accused of killing woman on Charlotte train incompetent to stand trial

Decarlos Brown Jr to stay in custody while receiving treatment for remainder of case over Iryna Zarutska’s death

The man accused of fatally stabbing Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte commuter train in August has been found incompetent to stand trial in federal court for now, the US attorney’s office for the western district of North Carolina said on Tuesday.

Decarlos Brown Jr, 35, is accused of killing Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, on a Charlotte light rail train in a case that drew national attention after a surveillance camera video depicting the violent attack was released.

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Dozens reportedly arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina, amid immigration crackdown

Trump administration has made Democratic-led city its latest target despite fierce objections from local leaders

A top border patrol commander touted dozens of arrests in North Carolina’s largest city on Sunday as Charlotte residents reported a surge of encounters with federal immigration agents near churches and apartment complexes.

The Trump administration has made the Democratic-led city of about 950,000 people its latest target for an immigration enforcement crackdown it says will combat crime, despite fierce objections from local leaders and the fact that crime rates in the city are steadily declining.

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Federal immigration officers begin sweep in Charlotte, North Carolina

Local reports say targets include church parishioners doing yard work and workers hanging Christmas lights

Federal immigration officers on Saturday began a sweep through Charlotte, the largest city in North Carolina, federal officials confirmed.

Local media reports said that among the locations targeted by masked federal agents was a church in east Charlotte, where an arrest was made while about 15 to 20 church members were doing yard work on the property.

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US right capitalizes on fatal stabbing of Ukrainian refugee in North Carolina

Far right points to lax criminal justice system and racist narratives, not mental health system failures as experts say

The random and unprovoked killing of a young woman in North Carolina several weeks ago has become a viral video, a political football, and a powerful rightwing talking point – even as the horror and anger her death has provoked obscures what experts say is a vital story about the failures of the American mental health system.

The alleged perpetrator, Decarlos Brown Jr, 34, has a long history of problems with the law and mental health issues. He had been arrested 14 times and served a five-year stint for armed robbery. Brown had also come to believe that there was something alien and malevolent inside him – a “man-made material”, he told people, possibly a computer chip implanted by the government that was fighting him for control of his body.

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