Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Outrage After Video Shows Vagrant Stabbing Ukrainian Refugee on Light Rail | Crime Alert 6AM 09.10.25

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Outrage After Video Shows Vagrant Stabbing Ukrainian Refugee on Light Rail | Crime Alert 6AM 09.10.25 · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

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  Speaker 1: Crime Alert hourly update, Breaking crime news Now. I'm Drew Nelson.
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  Speaker 1: North Carolina's governor reacts with outrage after video shows a
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  Speaker 1: twenty three year old Ukrainian refugee being stabbed to death
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  Speaker 1: on a Charlotte light rail train. Arena Zarutzka was killed
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  Speaker 1: in an unprovoked attack on August twenty second. She just
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  Speaker 1: boarded the Lynx Blue line about ten pm, still wearing
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  Speaker 1: her uniform from work. She was sitting alone looking at
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  Speaker 1: her phone, and a man in a red hoodie sat
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  Speaker 1: behind her. After four minutes, he stood up, pulled a
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  Speaker 1: folded knife from his pocket, and stabbed her three times
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  Speaker 1: in the throat. She collapsed and died on the train
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  Speaker 1: as passengers tried to help. Governor Josh Stein says, quote
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  Speaker 1: I am appalled by the footage of her murder. We
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  Speaker 1: need more cops on the beat to keep people safe.
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  Speaker 1: He urged lawmakers to pass his plan to fill law
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  Speaker 1: enforcement vacancies and quote stop these horrific crimes. Police arrested
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  Speaker 1: thirty four year old to Carlos Brown Junior days later.
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  Speaker 1: He's charged with first degree murder. Brown has a long
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  Speaker 1: criminal history armed robbery, breaking, up, entering, filliny, larceny. He
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  Speaker 1: was released earlier this year after claiming someone had implanted
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  Speaker 1: a device in his body. A court ordered a mental
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  Speaker 1: health evaluation that was never completed. Officials say Zarutzka and
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  Speaker 1: Brown never even spoke to each other. Zarutzka fled Kiev
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  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two with her mother, sister, and brother.
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  Speaker 1: She worked at Zipiti's pizzeria, studied to be a veterinary assistant,
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  Speaker 1: and walked her neighbor's dogs. Her obituary described her as
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  Speaker 1: a gifted artist who was quote happiest when surrounded by family.
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  Speaker 1: Her death has become a flashpoint, with President Trump calling
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  Speaker 1: Brown a lunatic and blaming Democrats for letting violent criminals
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  Speaker 1: walk free. Charlotte's Mayer called it a quote tragic failure
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  Speaker 1: by the courts. A US attorney said federal charges are
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  Speaker 1: under review. Quote we are looking at every way the
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  Speaker 1: federal government can bring justice to Arena Zerutzka and her
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  Speaker 1: loved ones. More crime man justice news After this, a Charlotte,
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  Speaker 1: North Carolina police officer who took his own life while
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  Speaker 1: on duty is now confirmed to be the first known
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  Speaker 1: law enforcement officer diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE.
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  Speaker 1: That's according to The New York Times. Brent Simpson died
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  Speaker 1: by suicide in July of last year, at the age
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  Speaker 1: of forty seven. He left for work that morning, kissed
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  Speaker 1: his wife, Gina Elliott, and said he loved her. Two
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  Speaker 1: hours later, his boss and other officers showed up at
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  Speaker 1: her door. They told her Simpson had shot himself at
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  Speaker 1: a cemetery. In the final years of his life, Simpson
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  Speaker 1: often told Elliot quote, something is wrong with my brain.
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  Speaker 1: She kept notes. As he began to lose his memory
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  Speaker 1: and drift from the life that he had built for himself,
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  Speaker 1: he stopped his beloved hobby of woodworking. He no longer
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  Speaker 1: trained for his jiu jitsu black belt. He started crying
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  Speaker 1: without warning. He felt a constant pressure behind his right eye.
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  Speaker 1: He told her he could not feel joy. Simpson joined
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  Speaker 1: the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department in two thousand and six.
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  Speaker 1: By twenty eleven, he was training recruits and hand to
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  Speaker 1: hand combat at the academy. He wore padded gear during
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  Speaker 1: the physical combat training, but often returned home bruised and dazed.
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  Speaker 1: He later achieved his dream of becoming a canine officer. Still,
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  Speaker 1: by twenty twenty, Elliot noticed a sharp change. He talked
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  Speaker 1: about retiring early. He seemed distant. One day, when asked
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  Speaker 1: to speak at a funeral, he told her quote, I
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  Speaker 1: don't know whether what I'm remembering is real or imagined.
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  Speaker 1: In twenty twenty three, he entered a mental health rehab
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  Speaker 1: program for first responders and was diagnosed with PTSD. Nothing helped.
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  Speaker 1: He slept no more than three hours a night. He
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  Speaker 1: grew paranoid and kept prepper supplies in the house. After workshifts,
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  Speaker 1: he would sometimes sit and stare blankly at the wall.
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  Speaker 1: In early twenty twenty four, he tried ketamine therapy and antidepressants.
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  Speaker 1: Doctors ran MRIs blood tests and other neurological exams, but
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  Speaker 1: got no clear answer. Elliot says she felt him slipping
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  Speaker 1: further away. After his death, Simpson's brain was donated to
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  Speaker 1: Boston University's CTE Center. Doctor n McKee, who studied his brain,
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  Speaker 1: found lesions in the frontal and temporal lobes, signs of
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  Speaker 1: early stage ct She told The Times quote, people in
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  Speaker 1: these early stages of CTE can have fairly profound behavioral
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  Speaker 1: changes and sometimes personality changes. She noted that Simpson's years
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  Speaker 1: of police training, Navy service, and even high school football
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  Speaker 1: all raised his risk. Psychotherapist Stephanie Samuels, who works with
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  Speaker 1: law enforcement, told The Times many of her patients show
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  Speaker 1: similar symptoms rage, memory lapses, paranoia. She believes CTE has
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  Speaker 1: long been overlooked in police suicide cases. Gina Elliott now
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  Speaker 1: knows what her husband could not. Quote, my sweet baby
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  Speaker 1: had to die thinking he was going insane. More than
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  Speaker 1: a year has passed, but she still hasn't washed his clothes.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes she drives his truck and reaches across the seat,
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  Speaker 1: pretending he's there to hold her hand. Quote. I lost
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  Speaker 1: him twice. He was gone years before he was physically gone.
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  Speaker 1: The Department has not commented publicly on the CTE diagnosis.
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  Speaker 1: If you watched Breaking Bad, you know Tuco Salamanca as
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  Speaker 1: one of the most unhinged bad guys ever written. The
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  Speaker 1: actor who played him, Raymond Cruz, doesn't have nearly that
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  Speaker 1: big of an attitude, But on Monday, he was arrested
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  Speaker 1: after a dispute outside his home ended with a woman
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  Speaker 1: getting sprayed with a hose. Cruise Age sixty was taken
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  Speaker 1: into custody in Los Angeles. He was arrested on suspicion
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  Speaker 1: of misdemeanor battery. He was booked and released later that
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  Speaker 1: day on his own recognisance. No charges have been filed.
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  Speaker 1: Cruse's agent Rafael Burko says the actor was washing his
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  Speaker 1: car when three women parked a white minivan very close
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  Speaker 1: to his bumper. Cruise asked them to move. Burko says
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  Speaker 1: they refused and began filming him. He says Cruise asked
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  Speaker 1: them to stop while still spraying the car. Some water
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  Speaker 1: hit their vehicle, and he goes on to say, quote,
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  Speaker 1: believe it or not, one of them called the police.
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  Speaker 1: Raymond is happy this is done with. Has no criminal
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  Speaker 1: history whatsoever. He has no idea who these women are
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  Speaker 1: or why they were harassing him in front of his
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  Speaker 1: own home while he was trying to wash a car.
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  Speaker 1: Our partners at TMZ first reported the arrest. The case
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  Speaker 1: will be reviewed by the La City Attorney, who may
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  Speaker 1: choose to hold an informal hearing or refer Cruise to
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  Speaker 1: anger management. Outside of Breaking Bad, Raymond Cruz is best
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  Speaker 1: known for playing Detective Julio Sanchez on The Closer and
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  Speaker 1: Major Crimes, a role that he held for over a decade.
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  Speaker 1: He also appeared in films like Training Day, Alien Resurrection,
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  Speaker 1: and The Substitute, often portraying military or law enforcement. For
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  Speaker 1: the latest crime and justice news, follow Crime Alert hourly
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  Speaker 1: update on your favorite podcast app with this crime Alert.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Drew Nelson.