GoFundme removes fundraiser for repeat offender, Decarlos Brown Jr who stabbed Ukraine woman, Iryna Zarutska suggesting that he is also a victim. Social media users widely condemn the page as commentators express outrage.
Define victim? GoFundMe has removed an online fundraiser for the legal defense fund of the man accused of stabbing a Ukrainian refugee on the lightrail in Charlotte, North Carolina last month.
The move comes as Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, faces first-degree murder for the slaying of 23-year-old Ukraine woman, Iryna Zarutska, on August 22. The woman’s deadly assault came just months after fleeing her war torn country as a refugee in search of a better life in the United States.
Decarlos Brown Jr failed by the system?
Brown has been arrested multiple times with arrests dating back as far as 2011, and who at the time of the stabbing was reportedly homeless.
The repeat offender had been arrested at least 14 times, for felony larceny, robbery with a dangerous weapon, assault, shoplifting and making threats according to the nypost.
In making the plea for donations, the fundraiser, titled, ‘DeCarlos Dejuan Brown JR legal fees’ suggests that Brown is just as much of a victim as the woman that he stabbed to death, claiming that the funds donated would help ‘to stop the injustice against Decarlos Brown Jr.’
‘While what happened on the Blue Line was a tragedy, what we mustn’t lose sight of is the fact that Decarlos Brown Jr. was failed categorically by the judicial system and the mental health services of North Carolina, and as such is not entirely to blame for what happened,’ one page wrote according to WHAM.
Another fundraiser for Brown wrote that ‘anything helps against the racism and bias against our people,’ thanking donors for ‘giving us a hand to push against this corrupt narrative.’
There is a @gofundme for Decarlos Brown. You can’t make this up. He murdered in cold blood and yet his supporters want you to think he was “failed” by the system.
Instead, he did exactly what the system wants him to do. pic.twitter.com/oHLfYRBBrb
— Dissident Media (@DissidentMedia) September 7, 2025
Decarlos Brown Jr GoFundme states he is also a victim, but social media users overwhelmingly disagree
Many users took to social media, expressing their disconcert with GoFundMe for allowing the fundraisers.
One user posted to X, ‘No one should donate to GoFundMe EVER AGAIN. This is disgusting.’
Another user wrote that Brown was a ‘monster,’ saying that it was ‘evil’ of GoFundMe to allow a fundraiser page to be made for him.
‘You can’t make this up. He [allegedly] murdered in cold blood and yet his supporters want you to think he was ‘failed’ by the system. Instead, he did exactly what the system wants him to do,’ another posted on X.
‘What kind of sick human is donating to this monster? GoFundMe should be ashamed,’ another raged.
While another opined, ‘Race has f–k all to do with it! There would be absolute rage if the race was reversed!’
GoFundMe has since removed the fundraising pages.
In a statement, GoFundMe said that their terms of service ‘explicitly prohibit fundraisers that raise money for the legal defense of anyone formally charged with an alleged violent crime.’
In the interim, a GoFundMe page has been set up for the victim’s family, raising over $86,500 for Iryna Zarutska.
‘Ira had recently arrived in the United States, seeking safety from the war and hoping for a new beginning. Tragically, her life was cut short far too soon,’ according to the account that was set up to help Zarutska’s loved ones with funeral expenses.
