White House torches media after killer’s mother admits son should’ve been jailed before Zarutska murder

The White House unleashed on The Washington Post for its reporting on the stabbing murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska by a career criminal on a train in North Carolina in August. 

“White House: The career criminal who murdered Iryna Zarutska should’ve been locked up. Murderer’s mother: My son should’ve been locked up. Washington Post citing ‘experts’: Actually, locking up violent criminals is draconian!” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted to X on Wednesday.

Leavitt was reacting to a Washington Post article titled, “Trump blames Democrats for Charlotte stabbing. Records complicate the story,” which detailed the White House’s position that left-wing cities have created violent trends via soft-on-crime policies such as no-cash bail. The article focused on the murder of Zarutska and the suspect allegedly behind the tragedy, Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr. 

Brown had a lengthy arrest record ahead of Zarutska’s death, racking up 14 arrests over the last decade, as well as convictions including larceny and breaking and entering in 2013, and a 2015 conviction for robbery with a dangerous weapon, which landed him behind bars for six years, Fox Digital previously reported. 

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More recent charges included communicating threats and misuse of the 911 system earlier this year. Brown, however, was not under state supervision at the time of Zarutska’s killing. 

Brown’s own mother, whom the Washington Post noted in its Wednesday report, told local media that her son should have been detained at the time of the killing, and lamented the court system released him despite previous arrests and mental health concerns. The White House provided its own statement to the outlet arguing violent criminals should be detained and not out on the streets, which the Washington Post included. 

“This is not a ‘complicated issue,’ like many Democrats and left-wing media outlets have tried to claim; it is very simple: violent criminals belong behind bars, not sitting behind innocent bystanders on public transportation,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the Washington Post for the story in question. 

The White House took issue with the outlet, noting the mother’s concern over her son’s release, and Jackson’s statement, before citing experts who reported to the outlet that “permanently confining people who are mentally ill for minor offenses is a ‘draconian’ and inhumane response.”

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“The Trump Administration will not let it go unnoticed that the failing left-wing media and out-of-touch, privileged reporters continue to bend over backwards to defend career criminals instead of the innocent victims that are murdered by these monsters,” White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers told Fox Digital of the media report. “Enough is enough: the American people deserve better and that begins by acknowledging the truth about how soft-on-crime policies fuel this unacceptable violence.”

Fox News Digital reached out to The Washington Post for comment on the White House’s response. 

Brown’s mom, who did not identify herself, told local outlet WSOC-TV in August that her son had long struggled with mental illness, noting that he “started saying weird things” after his release from prison for the 2015 robbery conviction. 

“My heart goes out to the victim’s family. What he did was atrocious. It was horrible. It was wrong,” she told outlet WSOC-TV. 

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Ahead of the murder, Brown was charged by police for misusing the 911 system in January, when he claimed to operators that he was being controlled by a microchip, the New York Post reported. He was released from jail on cashless bail and provided a “written promise” to appear in court at a later date. 

There were concerns over his mental health, however, with a prosecutor questioning if Brown could proceed in the court case before a judge ordered a forensic evaluation, according to WSOC-TV. Brown was not detained despite the concerns. 

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His mother told the local outlet that the court should not have allowed him to be among the community, citing his mental state and previous arrests, while adding that “the system failed him.”

The Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that it federally charged Brown with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. 

Leavitt, during a White House press briefing on Tuesday, railed against media outlets for their slow response in covering the fatal stabbing after it unfolded on Aug. 22. 

“This is madness. This monster should have been locked up, and Iryna should still be alive, but Democrat politicians, liberal judges, and weak prosecutors would rather virtue signal than lock up criminals and protect their communities,” Leavitt said on Tuesday. “Perhaps most shamefully of all, the majority of the media, many outlets in this room, decided that her murder was not worth reporting on originally because it does not fit a preferred narrative.”

Fox News Digital’s Sarah Rumpf-Whitten and Alexander Hall contributed to this report.