President Donald Trump talked about the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee on a light rail train in Charlotte, calling the alleged perpetrator a “lunatic.”
Trump’s words came as he was giving a speech at the Museum of the Bible Monday when he spoke about the death of Iryna Zarutska, 23, on Aug. 22, per Fox News.
The president said something must be done to counteract “evil people” for the good of the U.S.
“We’re all people of religion, but there are evil people,” Trump said. “And we have to confront that. I just give my love and hope to the family of the young woman who was stabbed this morning or last night in Charlotte by a madman.”
Decarlos Brown, 34, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
“A lunatic just got up and started,” Trump said of Brown. “It’s right on tape. Not really watchable because it’s so horrible, but just viciously stabbed. She’s just sitting there.”
Surveillance footage was released by the Carlotte Area Transit System (CATS). In the video, Zarutska is seen boarding the Lynx Bline line just after 9:45 p.m. Aug. 22.
The footage shows Zarutska on her phone scrolling while a man in a red hoodie is sitting behind her.
That man then pulls out a knife and begins stabbing Zarutska three times — at least one time in the neck.
Zarutska was pronounced her dead at the scene.
In the video, Brown is seen walking through the rail car takes off his sweatshirt, and waits by the doors as passengers look on.
“So they’re evil people,” Trump said. “We have to be able to handle that. If we don’t handle that, we don’t have a country.”
The suspect has a history of arrests, according to records received by Fox News Digital.
These include “convictions for felony larceny and felony breaking and entering in 2013, and a 2015 conviction for robbery with a dangerous weapon that sent him to prison for more than six years. He was released in 2020 but remained on parole until 2021, and subsequent charges against him included communicating threats and misuse of the 911 system earlier this year,” the news outlet reported.
Trump also spoke about cashless bail and how the country should stop using it.
“This cashless bail started a wave in our country where a killer kills somebody and is out on the street by the afternoon and, in many cases, going out and killing again, cashless bail,” Trump said.
