CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The man accused of stabbing a Ukrainian refugee in Charlotte, North Carolina, is now facing a federal charge.

The Department of Justice charged Decarlos Brown Jr. with one count of terrorist attack or other violence against a mass transportation system.

You can read the criminal complaint here or below.

He also faces a first-degree murder charge in North Carolina, WSOC reported.

In a news release announcing the federal charge, Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “I have directed my attorneys to federally prosecute DeCarlos Brown Jr., a repeat violent offender with a history of violent crime, for murder. We will seek the maximum penalty for this unforgivable act of violence — he will never again see the light of day as a free man.”

If convicted of the federal charge, he faces the death penalty or life in prison.

Officials said Brown stabbed Iryna Zarutska on Aug. 22 as they rode the Blue Line light rail in the city’s South End, WSOC reported.

Video from the Charlotte Area Transit System showed the attack. Zarutska entered the train car and sat in front of Brown. Moments later, Brown can be seen pulling out a pocketknife, standing up and stabbing her in the neck.

She was pronounced dead at the scene with a single stab wound to her neck, federal officials said.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department arrested Brown shortly after the stabbing. He faces a local charge of first-degree murder, WSOC reported.

The alleged weapon, a folding pocketknife covered in blood, was found near the outbound light rail platform at the CATS station on Camden Road, officials said.

“The act, itself, does not scream federal crime but when we started to see the effects of that act, we saw the public saying, ‘We aren’t riding the light rail anymore. We are afraid to go to the park,’” U.S. Attorney Western District North Carolina Russ Ferguson said during a news conference. “That’s when my mind and my office started saying, ‘Huh, there may be something more than a single murder here. This might be a federal charge.’”

Brown had been arrested earlier this year after calling 911 several times, saying that people were trying to control him. He was charged with a misdemeanor. A judge later released him without bond, after getting a written promise to appear, a standard procedure for the type of charge he was facing, WSOC reported.

However, officials said that Brown failed to appear in court in previous cases, but it is not known if the judge who allowed him to be released knew that, as magistrates have little information, especially about mental health issues, about a defendant outside what arresting officers tell them, according to WSOC.

Brown’s mother told WSOC that she tried to get her son an involuntary psychiatric commitment after he became violent at home. Doctors diagnosed him with schizophrenia.

In addition to years of mental health issues, he has a long criminal history, CNN and The Associated Press reported. Brown was subject to 14 cases in North Carolina and was convicted of armed robbery, felony larceny and breaking and entering. State criminal records showed that he spent more than five years in prison for robbery with a dangerous weapon.

The federal and state cases will run parallel, the AP reported. Brown also faces the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder in North Carolina, but the state has not executed a prisoner since 2006.

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