(CNN) — Officials filed federal charges Tuesday in the grisly slaying of a young woman on a Charlotte light rail train that has become a political lightning rod across the country where she had come to seek safety.

Iryna Zarutska fled Ukraine in 2022 with her mother, sister, and brother to escape the war with Russia “and she quickly embraced her new life in the United States,” her obituary states.

The 23-year-old brimmed with potential. The talented artist quickly became fluent in English, found work at a pizzeria and dreamed of becoming a veterinary assistant – until a man sitting behind her on the train stabbed her three times in the throat, for no apparent reason.

The suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, is a repeat criminal offender now facing a federal charge for committing an

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