DAILY NEWS / TRENDING NEWS

 Ukrainian Woman Stabbed, 

The mother and sister of Decarlos Brown, the suspect in the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian woman on Charlotte light rail, say that he struggled with mental illness for years after being released from prison and that he claimed there was a "material" in his body that controlled him. 

Brown, 34, was arrested on Aug. 22 after police say he stabbed 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska three times while riding the Lynx Blue Line in Charlotte, according to an affidavit obtained by ABC News.

In audio recordings of a conversation between Brown and his sister several days after his arrest, obtained by ABC News, Brown maintains that he has “material” in his body that caused him to attack Zarutska.

"Make sure it was me that did it, not the material. And I'm telling you, the material did it," Brown said, according to the recordings.

The suspect can be heard telling his sister that he did not "even know the lady at all."

"I never said not one word to the lady at all. That scary, ain't it? So, like, why would somebody stab somebody for no reason?" Brown can be heard telling his sister.

Brown has been charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Western District of North Carolina with committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system, which could make him eligible for the death penalty, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

"This brutal attack on an innocent woman simply trying to get to her destination is an attack on the American way of life. Of course, crimes like this affect the victim the most -- Iryna deserves justice, and we will bring justice to her and her family," U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson said in a statement on Tuesday.

Brown's sister and mother said they noticed a difference in his behavior following his incarceration, which ended in 2020, and that it got worse over the three years since he was released.

Brown's mother, Michelle Dewitt, said her was son was diagnosed with schizophrenia and after his time in prison, he "was different."

"He wasn't the normal Carlos, the fun Carlos," Dewit told ABC News in a separate interview.

The 34-year-old suspect has a criminal record including larceny and breaking and entering charges. He also spent five years in prison for robbery with a dangerous weapon starting in 2015, according to the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction. He was also arrested this year for misusing the 911 system, according to court records.

In total, Brown has been charged 14 times in the past, including an arrest in January, but was "still on the streets" leading up to the attack, North Carolina FBI Special Agent James Barnacle Jr. said on Tuesday.

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 Charlie Kirk shot and killed in Utah,

Conservative influencer and activist Charlie Kirk has died after being shot in the neck during a speaking event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah on Sept. 10.

Videos circulating on social media show Kirk, 31, who was on campus as part of “The American Comeback Tour” hosted by conservative nonproft Turning Point USA, speaking in the university’s courtyard when he was shot in the neck. Livestream video showed crowds of people running from the area where the shooting occurred.

Kirk's death was initially confirmed by social media posts by President Donald Trump and Turning Point USA and later confirmed by officials during a news conference.

The university initially stated on social media that a suspect was in custody, but Scott Trotter, a university spokesman, told the New York Times and Deseret News that police determined the person who was taken into custody was not the shooter. Campus police declined to comment when reached by USA TODAY.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said during a news conference that a person of interest was in custody, though Utah's Commissioner of Public Safety Beau Mason said minutes before that: "The suspect is at large."

Eva Terry and Emma Pitts, two reporters from the Deseret News, based in Salt Lake City, Utah, arrived on the Utah Valley University campus early Wednesday. They talked with people in the crowd who’d gathered to hear Kirk speak. “I’ve seen things I’ve never seen before,” Terry told a USA TODAY reporter hours later.

Kirk had called up one student and answered a question, then called on a second student, who asked “How many mass shooters have been transgender,” Terry said. “Too many,” responded Kirk, said Terry, who covers politics for the Deseret News and has been a reporter there for about two years.

When the student asked a follow up question, “(Kirk) picked up his microphone and before he was able to speak a bullet hit the left side of his neck and it was pretty bloody,” Terry said.

“Then he fell off his chair and then everyone dropped to the ground,” she said. “I didn’t see anyone catch him, I saw him slump out of his chair and that’s the last thing I saw.”

“When the shot went off, we dropped to the ground and were holding each other and we said a prayer,” she said. Everyone around them was dropping to the ground, and then after about 30 seconds, she said “everyone ran.”

Kirk was shot at around 12:10 according to a social media post from the university. Beau Mason, Commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, placed the shooting at around 12:20 during a later news conference.

York County police officers killed

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Charlie Kirk fatally shot,

Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative youth activist organization Turning Point USA, has died after he was shot during an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said.

"The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead," Trump said on social media. "No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!"

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called the fatal shooting a "political assassination."

The manhunt for the suspected shooter is still underway and the investigation is still ongoing, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.

The person of interest investigators had been questioning has been released from custody, according to the FBI director and two additional law enforcement sources.A single shot was fired on Utah Valley University's Orem campus toward Kirk, a visiting speaker, shortly after noon, the school said.

"He was hit and taken from the location by his security," the university said.

Kirk, 31, was taken to a hospital after being shot, according to Turning Point USA, which said, "with a heavy heart that we confirm that Charles James Kirk has been murdered by a gun shot" during the campus event.

"We ask that everyone keep his family and loved ones in your prayers," the organization said.

Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason called the shooting a "targeted attack," and said the scene is a "very large area."

Mason said the "only information" they have on the possible shooter was taken from CCTV on campus, and that the person was dressed in all dark clothing. The shot was fired on campus from a "longer distance," potentially from a roof, he said.

There is no evidence that anyone else was involved, according to authorities.

Salt Lake City FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Bohls said the investigation is in the early stages.

"We are following all the leads and all the evidence," he said during the press briefing on Wednesday.

The father of two young children was a Trump confidant at the forefront of a burgeoning conservative youth movement. Known as the "Trump whisperer," Kirk was deeply involved in vetting top positions for the administration following the election and was in constant communication with top advisers and the president himself.

"It's horrific. It's one of the most horrible things I've ever seen," Trump told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl.

"He was a great guy," Trump said. "He was a good man. He was an incredible guy. Nobody like him."

FBI and ATF agents are on the scene, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

FBI Director Kash Patel said earlier the agency "stands in full support of the ongoing response and investigation."

There was a discussion about shootings when the single shot was fired during the event.

Utah Valley student Luke Pitman, who witnessed the shooting, told Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX that he heard a "big bang."

"We thought it was confetti. Then, everyone started ducking down," he told the station. "And then, I look over at Charlie Kirk and I see blood coming from his neck."

Utah Sen. Mike Lee said he is "tracking the situation at Utah Valley University closely."

"Please join me in praying for Charlie Kirk and the students gathered there," he said on social media earlier Wednesday.

Vice President JD Vance called Kirk "a genuinely good guy and a young father" while urging prayers in the aftermath of the shooting.

Cox said earlier he was being briefed "following the violence directed at Charlie Kirk" during the conservative political activist's visit to the campus.

"Those responsible will be held fully accountable. Violence has no place in our public life. Americans of every political persuasion must unite in condemning this act," he said on X.

The university was the first stop this fall for Turning Point USA's "The American Comeback Tour," which is traveling to multiple college campuses around the country. The tour has planned stops in Utah, Colorado, Minneapolis, Virginia and elsewhere, according to its website.

An event featuring Kirk at Utah Valley University on Wednesday was expected to include a "prove me wrong" table, according to the tour's website.

Ahead of Kirk's visit to Utah Valley University, some students started an online petition asking university administrators to stop him from coming. 

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