TRENTON, N.J.  – The security footage spread like wildfire across social media Sept. 8: it is Aug. 22 before 10 p.m., and a slight, young woman wearing a black baseball cap and T-shirt enters the Charlotte light rail train and takes a seat. She sits alone, her left arm hugging her waist as she scrolls through her phone, earbuds in. A man in a red hooded sweatshirt slouches against the window in the seat behind her. Then, he takes something out of his pocket, stands to tower over the woman, and raises his right arm.

“I had to stop watching there,” Assemblyman Alex Sauickie (R-Ocean) said. “But I couldn’t avoid the still of Iryna’s terrified face as she looked up at the monster who should not have been on that train, who took her life. I saw the stills of her face buried in her hands as she bled out. She was only 23 and had her whole life ahead of her. The system failed her.”

The man charged with Iryna Zarutska’s murder, then-34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr., was reportedly out on cashless bail when he stabbed her three times. His arrest record dates back to 2007 and includes three felony convictions and incidents tied to his alleged schizophrenia diagnosis documented as far back as 2018. Today, he’s awaiting trial on a single federal charge, committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system, that allows for the death penalty if convicted. 

“The public records show an escalation in violence with each arrest, and a failure to follow up on mental health evaluations after he was released on cashless bail with no prison time for most offenses,” Sauickie said. “North Carolina reacted, but acted too late, to save Iryna. While I hope that state’s new law saves lives, we can’t let what happened to Iryna happen here in New Jersey.”

Sauickie recently introduced legislation, called “Iryna’s Law,” that would permit involuntary commitment for mental health treatment rather than pretrial detention or release when the defendant may be a threat to himself or others. The bill would also make committing a crime on public transportation an aggravating factor. 

While New Jersey does not currently mandate specific mental health screenings, first-time violent offenders may be considered for cashless release with conditions and only face pretrial detention after multiple offenses.

“We need to stop allowing things to get to a place where someone becomes a repeat, violent offender,” Sauickie said. “We need to show the public that we’re serious about protecting them and institute mandated involuntary mental health interventions. As a father of daughters, I call on my colleagues regardless of party to support this bill to protect all the daughters of New Jersey. Let us never forget Iryna, and let’s not fail others like her in the wake of her death.”

Zarutska fled from war-torn Ukraine to the United States in 2022, where she settled in Charlotte, North Carolina, with her mother and siblings. She was returning home from her job at Zepeddie’s Pizzeria in Charlotte’s South End on the Lynx Blue Line when she was killed.