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Sept. 10, 2025 - Sean Hannity Show
33:08
Tragedy in Charlotte - September 9th, Hour 1
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The FBI Director Cash Patel, Pam Bondi, A.G., the DOJ, hitting this alleged train killer with a federal crime in the commuters on camera stabbing of this young woman.
I've never seen anything like this in recent memory.
We've seen horrible crimes over the years being committed.
I mean, this woman gets on a train.
She sits down.
She's looking at her phone.
The guy behind her just stands up and stabs her to death.
And, you know, I was reading today, Blue City trains are more dangerous than war zones, the White House said after this fatal stabbing.
New video showing this guy drenched in blood, you know, after killing this Ukrainian refugee, this young woman.
You have one GOP councilman rejecting National Guard intervention after the refugees' train measure.
I mean, it makes no sense to me where the Democrats are coming down on issues of law and order and safety and security.
Now, the suspect in this case, the FBI announced that DeCarlos DeWan Brown Jr., the suspect in the stabbing death of this young Ukrainian refugee woman on this North Carolina Charlotte, North Carolina train, has been federally charged with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.
Quote, the brutal attack on this woman on the Charlotte Light Rail was a disgraceful act that should never happen in America.
FBI Director Cash Patel, the FBI, jumped to assist in this investigation immediately to ensure justice is served.
The perpetrator is never released from jail again.
I want to thank the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, for her pursuit of today's federal charges, which are the first step towards delivering justice for this young woman's family and her and her family and Americans who deserve to live in our great American cities free from being targeted by violent criminals.
Bondi said the Department of Justice will seek the maximum penalty for Brown, saying this was the direct result of failed soft on crime policies that put criminals before innocent people.
I have directed my attorneys to federally prosecute DeCarlos Brown Jr., a repeat violent offender with a history of violent crime for murder.
And we will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence.
He will never see the light of day again as a free man.
I mean, this woman had taken the train many times before, probably tired after a long day of work, wanted to just get home, make dinner, watch TV, maybe go out with friends.
I don't know.
Tragically never made it.
There's a lot about this.
Now, the judge who released this train killer has a history of being soft on crime.
Now, we see this in certain jurisdictions.
A police officer can be sued if they make a mistake on the job, especially if it results in serious injury to an innocent civilian.
Those lawsuits, by the way, can result in substantial civil judgments that could bankrupt an officer, the family.
In the case of like New York City, they spend tens and hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
Last time I checked, why aren't some of these soft-on-crime judges subject to the same kind of accountability?
Because if they were, I think that maybe the family of this young Ukrainian murder victim, you know, would have a hell of a lawsuit against the magistrate judge.
The Washington Examiner points out this judge is under fire for allowing this apparently schizophrenic, according to their report, repeat offender walk-free without bonds seven months before this stabbing took place on this train, on this light rail, in this unprovoked attack.
A magistrate who released to Carlos Brown Jr.
on January 21st, quote, on a written promise to appear.
That's it.
After he was arrested on charges of misusing the 911 system during a police welfare check, and Brown, a homeless guy diagnosed with schizophrenia, told police officers he believed man-made material was implanted into his body, controlling his movements.
He had been arrested many times previously.
When officers advised him it was a medical matter and left, Brown became agitated, called 911 again, prompting officers to arrest him and charge him with a class one misdemeanor.
Now, despite this guy's violent criminal history, mental illness, a lack of fixed address, they let this guy go.
This judge let him go.
No bond required.
Police say he boarded this train without paying the fare, a shocker.
Stabbed this 23-year-old young woman in the neck as she sat alone.
She died right there on the scene.
Her family said she had fled war-torn Ukraine in search of a better, safer life in the U.S. You know, even Brown's mother said the court system failed the community by releasing her son.
Even the mother said, telling reporters that he had been under psychiatric monitoring after a schizophrenia diagnosis in 2014, his criminal record includes an armed robbery conviction, an assault on his sister, multiple other arrests.
And then the question now comes down to the idiocy of not just judges, but this whole defund, dismantle, no bail law, reimagine the police insanity that the left has embraced.
And in spite of all the violent crime that takes place in Chicago, in every major city, and in small towns, it just continues.
Republican members of North Carolina's congressional delegation are calling for the removal of this judge.
All 10 House GOP members from the Tar Heel State signed a letter urging a formal proceedings to remove the magistrate.
Judge Teresa Stokes, they cited her decision to release DeCarlos Brown based solely on his written promise to appear to a future court date.
What part of his record made her think that this was a good idea?
What part of this guy's record gave her any faith, hope, and confidence that he wouldn't be a threat to the community?
By releasing a repeat violent offender on nothing more than a written promise to appear, the magistrate displayed a willful failure to perform the duties of her office and engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.
Congressman Tim Moore, her decision undermined public confidence in the judicial system, exposed the entire community to wholly preventable harm.
And it goes, they argued that the release was made despite Brown's extensive criminal history.
14 prior arrests for serious offenses.
And by the way, including possession of a firearm by a felon, robbery with a dangerous weapon, physical assault of his own sister.
And then you have this dopey mayor in Charlotte coming under fire, rightly so, for woke comments, calling for compassion, not for the family of the victim and the victim, no, but for the deranged vagrant accused and on video, viciously murdering this young woman.
This is a tragic situation.
It sheds light on problems with society, safety nets related to mental health care and the systems that should be in place.
We had this guy in the system.
The guy was in place.
He should have been in jail.
He should not have been released.
Anyway, the mayor goes on that the perpetrator, DeCarlos Brown Jr., appears to have suffered a crisis.
Oh, he's having a crisis.
He's having a bad day.
Let me knife this girl to death on a train.
Then the mayor goes on, demanded some compassion, diligence, commitment, as we would have for cancer or heart disease.
How out of touch are you here?
Who do you have more sympathy for here?
He claimed that the Charlotte area transit system, where this was caught on video, took place, by and large, a safe transit system, not that safe, despite the unprovoked stabbing.
Again, the young lady was just coming home from work.
The mayor added that mental health, like the schizophrenia that Brown was diagnosed with, needs to be treated with the same compassion, diligence, and commitment as cancer and heart disease.
And those who are unhoused and more frequently the victim of crimes and not the perpetrators, although we should have more compassion.
Now, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was on with me last night.
If mayors can't keep their trains and buses safe, they don't deserve taxpayer money.
He's right.
The Department of Transportation is going to be investigating Charlotte over their failure to protect this young woman.
We'll also be looking for other crime-ridden cities across the country.
He suggested the federal transportation funding is at risk for cities that do not curb violence on public transit.
Our position is: if you don't clean up your act, we're not going to invest in you.
If you don't, we're going to pull your money and we're going to put it somewhere else.
Good for him.
He was great last night on this very issue.
But it's all part of a mentality.
It's all part of a mindset of the left.
This goes much deeper.
You know, we can't arrest the mayor goes on to say in further comments that are being made here, you know, that we will never arrest our way out of issues such as homelessness and mental health.
Can we arrest our way out of lunatics killing random victims?
Can we, if they're in the system and arrested 14 times, yeah, you have a pretty good indication that that person is going to do something again.
That long arrest record describes a violent, seriously, mentally ill man who had no business being on the streets.
At some point, everybody, you know, up and down this chain has blood on their hands, just like I argue Biden, Harris, Mayorkis, all the enablers, all the liars that told us the border is closed and secure.
How many times have I said they have blood on their hands?
All the people murdered by Harris, Biden, Mayorkis, unvetted illegal immigrants, all the people raped, all the other victims of violent crime, all the overdosed people because of drug dealers and cartel members and gang members selling those drugs.
And then for four years, they lie and say the border's closed.
The border's secure.
The border's closed.
The border's secure.
This guy was well known to local social service people and community policing authorities.
He was detained this year for calling 911s just this year.
You know, leftist officials in these blue cities talk about real safety and making people feel safe.
Oh, what?
Now you've got to, you know, triple lock your doors.
You know, and this is the even sicker part.
Remember Luigi Mangioni, the guy accused the guy of killing the United Healthcare CEO.
Remember that guy?
He became a hero of the left.
Believe it or not, they set up a GoFundMe account for DeCarlos Brown Jr., the guy that killed this young innocent woman.
He didn't see it coming.
He sat in front of the guy.
He's on her phone.
And we could show the video as far as we could show it without literally, you know, showing a massacre.
She's on her phone, totally unaware that this guy has his knife out and about to jam it right in her neck and then stab her again and again and again.
GoFundMe said they thankfully remove multiple fundraising campaigns created on behalf of the killer, DXCon.
And they say, GoFundMe terms of service, prohibit fundraisers for legal defense for anyone charged with a violent crime.
And they didn't know about it.
And by the way, the social media backlash, they did remove it as soon as they were made aware of it.
I'm not blaming them because people can put this up without it having approval.
Maybe they should change the system of approval.
But who are these people that would donate to this?
Who are these people that make excuses for this?
You know, you're wearing, you know, I'm watching the comments made by people that are donating.
You know, who are the people that praise the likes of Luigi Mangioni?
What has happened to the left?
You know, we're all people of religion, but there are evil people, President Trump said.
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 this madman.
Well, you can't bring her back.
Who's going to be held accountable?
Because the system failed spectacularly.
I mean, it's a 23-year-old woman.
She had her entire life ahead of her.
And this is happening in big towns and small cities, all over the country.
And anytime President Trump offers help, like he was able to reduce the violent crime rate all over Washington, D.C., dramatically.
And all you hear from J.B. Pritzker and Brandon John, oh, we don't want that.
Complaints from the part-time governor of California, complaints from New York politicians, the places that are least safe and least secure.
I hope all of you will pay attention and, you know, elect people that believe in law and order and safety and security.
Please, we'll continue.
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And I'm Carol Markowitz.
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We are awaiting this update out of Charlotte and North Carolina.
When that happens, we'll bring that to you.
We'll also play this exchange, as I said, with Tom Holman.
I mean, just the contempt.
Did you see this video, Linda?
We'll play it, but the contempt that Mika Brzezinski had as Tom Holman just absolutely, I mean, it was a verbal, you know, beatdown in just terms of facts and understanding.
And she says, you're disappearing, people.
No, we're not.
And then he went on to describe the people that he's been arresting that are threats to the community.
I don't understand the liberal mind that wants open borders, unvetted, illegal immigrants, including murderers, rapists, known terrorists, gang members, cartel members, etc., and why they would resist the policing efforts to keep their citizens safe and secure.
I'll never understand it.
Mike Baldwin's favorite radio talk show host is on the air right now.
Right, Mr. Baldwin?
Here's Sean Hannity.
All right, 25 now to the top of the hour, 800-941-Sean, our number.
If you want to be a part of the program, we are awaiting the U.S. Attorney's Office and the FBI to hold the joint presser in Charlotte after the Justice Department charged this guy with this fatal stabbing of this young Ukrainian refugee on this North Carolina commuter train last month.
We'll get to that when it happens.
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We have a lot more to get to here today.
This just breaking from Newsweek.
That would be a yes or a no.
Let me know.
Please get that.
According to Newsweek, this is just breaking.
A new video depicting the stabbing of this young Ukrainian woman is circulated on social media show in the aftermath.
Newsweek reporting the video shows the man moving through a train carriage after stabbing this young woman.
And in the continued footage, the suspect walked down the carriage of the train with blood dripping from his knife.
Passengers didn't even react to him.
Most people on trains, they look down.
Most people on trains are not very self-aware.
I know in New York, it's kind of like an unwritten rule.
You just don't look at other people.
I don't like that rule.
That's not how I used to roll.
All right, let's go to this press conference and I'll get back to this.
But anyway, the guy continued and he said, I got that white girl, according to Newsweek.
He seemed to be muttering.
Some of his other statements are harder to verify, but that's what Newsweek is reporting.
And by the way, Washington Post is reporting red states are cracking down on crime in their own blue cities within these red states.
We're talking about Houston, Texas, New Orleans, Louisiana, St. Louis, Missouri, and others.
Anyway, let's go to this presser.
We're a little late.
I'm here with Jim Barnacle, who's the special agent in charge of FBI Charlotte, which covers all of North Carolina.
He and I just got off the phone with the family of Irina Zarutska, spoke with her mother, spoke with her uncle.
Had a very touching call with them.
Our hearts go out to Irina's family.
They are suffering like any of us would be.
It was a very touching call.
Our hearts go out to them.
She is a refugee.
She literally came to the United States from a bomb shelter in Ukraine to escape the war.
And she was going about her day.
She was coming home from work on a light rail train, like all of us do all the time, and she was brutally murdered.
As a native of Charlotte, I'm so sad to say that our city has gotten to this place.
I was born here.
I grew up here.
I remember when the light rail was built.
I remember the development it spurred.
I remember the excitement.
And to think now that you can't even feel comfortable riding that train hits me deep.
The light rail brought this city access to jobs, access to education.
People could take the train to college.
It really put Charlotte on the map.
And this incident has really, really injured that.
Now, to Carlos Brown Jr., who we allege stabbed Erna Sarutska, is in state custody on first-degree murder charges.
But I'm here today to announce that we're going to supplement those state charges with federal charges.
These federal charges will go alongside the murder case in state court.
And we hope that they will ensure justice for Irna, for her family, and for the whole Charlotte community.
The charge we are bringing is in Title 18, which is the Criminal Code.
It's Section 1992A7, which is the law that Congress passed really for this situation.
It is an act of violence on a mass transportation system.
It is a law that is there because acts like this affect the American way.
It affects our daily life.
It is random acts on a train that are the thoroughbred in how we get through our cities to work, to our places of education, to our families.
It is our way of American life.
Crime makes people stop taking that light rail.
They give up those opportunities.
And we are here to be sure that we can save our city and bring those opportunities back.
The maximum penalty for this federal crime is life in prison without parole or the death penalty.
Of course, each individual case receives its own sentencing hearing by a federal judge that will decide the sentence based on the individual factors in this case.
Of course, at this point, we're only making allegations.
We do have a charge.
We filed a criminal complaint.
It has been signed by a federal judge.
The charges have been brought, but they are just charges.
Getting there has been a process.
I want to thank the FBI, which has an incredible team that has investigated this case.
They've ensured we had a basis for federal charges.
I want to thank the Charlotte Meckenburg Police Department that started this investigation, apprehended the defendant immediately after the incident happened at the light rail station.
And I want to thank the District Attorney's Office and Spencer Merriweather, who brought first-degree murder charges right away when this happened.
I think everyone knows the facts of this case, but I will briefly recitate what is in our criminal complaint.
And that is that at 9:55 on August 22nd, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department responded to a call.
I'm going to be in here because we have absolutely gone over all the details of this.
It's just a tragedy.
23-year-old Irina, a young woman in the prime of her life, gets on a train.
She's looking at her phone.
The background, the criminal record, the mental health issues, and nobody lifted a finger.
And then you have a dopey mayor that seems to have more sympathy for the victim than for the, I'm sorry, for the perpetrator than the victim.
It really, it really should make everybody angry.
The Washington Post reporting, state legislatures are now taking a more direct hand to curb crimes in blue cities within red states.
And I mentioned Jackson, Mississippi, Houston, Texas, New Orleans, Louisiana, St. Louis, Missouri, and others.
Mississippi, for example, invested heavily in new court operations to move quickly to prosecute and jail suspects.
Now, this guy is going to face a minimum of life in prison without any chance of parole, may face the death penalty, depending, I guess, on the judge and the evidence as presented.
The evidence seems overwhelming and incontrovertible, considering the whole thing is on videotape and the brutality and the pure evil in this crime.
But then, I guess, you know, then you're going to have, you know, idiotic mayors and, you know, you have soft on crime judges like the one that released this train killer, you know, has a history of being soft on crime.
And, you know, Charlotte Democrats urging compassion for the maniac and on other liberals setting up GoFundMe accounts.
I mean, you can't make that up.
Then we have the liberal media.
I saw Humpty Dumpty wade in.
Oh, let's hear what Humpty Dumpty had to say.
Elon Musk, Charlie Kirk, other Trump-aligned figures succeeded in making this senseless death a symbol of big city crime.
Some of the comments around this story are baldly racist, stoking fear of African Americans because this man attacked a white woman.
The open racism on sites like X Today, it's eye-popping.
But there are also legitimate questions about this so-called career criminal, someone who had been a repeat offender.
And those questions, I hope they're not lost amid all of the cesspool kind of comments on social media.
He's probably the dumbest person on television, and there's a lot of dumb people on television.
It's not even really worth our time.
And if you want to know why people don't watch fake news, CNN, that's a big reason why.
They were right to let him go the first time.
Why they brought him back?
I have no idea.
Do I think he's going to last long?
I don't.
Let's listen in on the FBI who's just taken to the podium just for a couple of minutes.
We'll dip in.
Sadly, everyone saw on surveillance video how tragic her life ended.
We're shocked.
We're saddened.
It's very, very difficult.
This young lady rode that train many times.
She was probably tired after a long day of work and just trying to get home to her loved ones, but she never made it.
In an instant, her life was over.
And her mother, her father, her siblings, her brother and sister, and her other family and friends, their lives will never be the same.
As you heard from U.S. Attorney Ferguson, we spoke with Erna's mother, Anna, and her uncle just a few minutes ago, and we told them of the federal charges brought against Carlos Brown Jr.
We hope this additional charge will help bring them a measure of justice and accountability for this horrific act.
I want to thank our partners, Chief Jennings and the CMPD.
We work every day with this police department.
We co-locate agents and officers and detectives from the police department on our violent crimes and safe streets task forces.
This is not a policing problem.
CNPD is out there every day protecting our streets.
You may not know how close we are to the police departments, but throughout this state, our partnerships with local police departments and state departments are critical to the work that we do.
The task force partnership is a force multiplier.
CMPD and other local partners work closely with the U.S. Attorney's Office, this office to assess whether local and state cases are appropriate to charge federally.
We are pleased to supplement the Charlotte and Mecklen-Flirt Police Department's work on this investigation.
That's the FBI weighing in on all of this as well, this tragedy, but it's only one of many.
You know, I'll give you another example.
ICE agents nabbed an illegal alien who's been arrested and released 49 times over the weekend.
This guy, Miguel Barrera Corona of Mexico, 49 past arrests, including convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, vehicle theft, criminal threat to terrorize, drunk driving, shoplifting, carrying a loaded firearm in public, carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle, trespassing, property damage, vandalism, petty theft, and carrying a concealed dagger.
Other illegal immigrants arrested by ICE agents over the weekend.
I can go on.
You know, Carlos Guzman Santiago, Mexico, convicted of second-degree forcible sex offense.
Linda Molina Sordo, El Salvador, convicted of child abuse.
You know, Tom Holman was on with Liberal Joe, and you should see Mika Brzezinski acting like he's the enemy.
Listen to him lay out exactly what ICE did to keep the people in Boston safe.
Listen.
I just want to know what ICE agents out in the field right now, what they consider to be a criminal.
Is that someone who has committed a crime like robbed a store?
Or what about Narcisco Barranco, the father of three Marines who was cutting bushes at an IHOP before they took him off the street?
I want to know.
I want to know the data that you say you have about 70% of these people.
Show it to us.
You said the specifics of that case, and I'll run down what the specifics of that case are.
You may not know all the facts around that case.
I may not.
I certainly don't.
That's why I'm asking you.
Well, let me tell you, look, right now, I see on the show this morning, you had Governor Healy talking about ICE doing enforcement operations at a church.
False.
Didn't happen.
They were parked there.
They did not do an operation there.
She said they were parked in a public space legally.
But to say that and to push that out there puts fear in the immigrant community.
So let me tell you.
To do that puts fear in the community.
To park the ICE agent's vehicle.
They're on a public street waiting to respond to a criminal alien release pulled aside the road.
Let me tell you, in the last couple of days, what's happened in Boston?
They've arrested Victor Gomez-Paris, a 33-year-old criminal alien from Guatemala, with charges of aggravated rape, assault and battery with dangerous weapon, indecent assault and battery on a victim 14 years or younger.
They arrested Kaylee Espinosa, 33-year-old criminal alien from Colombia, with charges of aggravated assault on a pregnant victim.
They arrested Joshua Gonzalez, a 23-year-old criminal alien from the Dominican Republic, with charges for trafficking heroin, morphine, opium, resisting police, disorderly conduct, and drug distribution.
They also arrested Samuel Armando Barrera, a 20-year-old criminal illegal alien from Guatemala, Kenyan charges for assault and battery on a child.
So Mayor Wu and Governor Healy, they ought to be calling ICE and thanking them for making their streets safer.
I mean, he just schooled MSDNC, but they don't get it.
I mean, if you think fake news, CNN is bad, I mean, MSDNC.
This is the heart of part of all of this.
They lied.
They covered up.
The legacy media mob was complicit.
They never covered the fact that we had known terrorists, murderers, rapists, cartel members, gang members, and drug dealers coming into this country, and they went along with the big lie to protect their buddy Joe, that the border's secure and the border's closed.
And Maorkis's lie, and Harris's lie.
And Americans were murdered, raped, victims of violent crime, thousands and thousands of people in total.
And nobody cared.
Nobody covered it.
You know, now we have a Democratic party.
They're complicit allies in the legacy media mob.
They don't want law and order.
They don't care what the body count is every weekend in Chicago.
They don't care about illegal immigrant crime.
They want their open borders.
They want the lie to continue.
And when convenient, and they can weaponize or politicize something, like Rosie O'Donnell weaponized the Minneapolis shooting and blame Trump, MAGA Republicans, white supremacists, and rushed to judgment, none of which is true.
Then all of a sudden it's an issue.
But this is a party that has lost any sense of moral clarity or any moral compass.
They've lost their heart, their conscience, and their soul to be that angry at the guy that's keeping cities safe.
In this case, Tom Holman.
This is why this is the perfect time for this country to have this debate.
And that is no more of this defund, dismantle, no bail law, reimagine the police, open borders, madness.
Innocent people are dying.
It's got to end.
We'll have more on this coming up.
Also, Jack Chitterelli running for governor of New Jersey.
He's in the single digits.
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