President Donald Trump blasted the Biden administration after a Haitian migrant was accused of beating a Florida mother to death with a hammer in a daylight attack caught on camera.
The killing happened outside a Fort Myers gas station, where police say Rolbert Joachim, 40, turned a confrontation into a sustained assault.
The victim, a store clerk and mother of two teenage daughters, had challenged him after he smashed her car window. What followed was fast and violent.
Investigators say Joachim closed the distance and began swinging, striking her in the head over and over with a hammer as she tried to defend herself.
The attack played out in front of witnesses, with footage showing the blows continuing even as she collapsed.
The video is now central to the outrage surrounding the case, capturing a level of violence that has fueled political backlash.
Trump seized on that footage and turned it into a direct indictment of immigration policy.
“An Illegal Alien Criminal from Haiti, who was released into our Country by the WORST President in History, Crooked Joe Biden, and the Radical Democrats in Congress, just beat an innocent woman to death with a hammer at a gas station in Florida,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“The video of her brutal slaying is one of the most vicious things you will ever see.”
He used the killing to hammer court rulings that have slowed parts of his immigration agenda.
“This one killing should be enough for these Radical Judges to STOP impeding my Administration’s Immigration Policies, and allow us to END THIS SCAM ONCE AND FOR ALL,” he penned.
Records show Joachim entered the United States in August 2022 and was released into the country under the Biden administration.
A federal judge later ordered his removal, but he remained in the U.S. after receiving Temporary Protected Status.
Trump has repeatedly targeted that program, calling it “massively abused and fraudulent,” while arguing that court challenges have made it difficult to shut down.
That status expired in 2024, yet Joachim was still in the country when the attack happened.
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Trump broadened the case into a larger warning about border policy.
“To my fellow Republicans, and frankly all Common Sense Americans, NEVER FORGET that Joe Biden and the Democrat Party turned the United States of America into a dumping ground,” he wrote.
“Allowing Tens of MILLIONS of Criminals, Lunatics, and the Mentally Insane from all over the World to pour into our Country, totally unvetted and unchecked through our wide Open Borders.”
“As I’ve said all along, if you import the Third World, you become the Third World,” he added.
He also called for justice while acknowledging the victim’s family.
“Please say a prayer for this innocent woman’s family. We will ensure quick and severe JUSTICE is served in this case!”
The Florida killing has become a flashpoint in the wider fight over immigration enforcement and how violent offenders remain in the country despite removal orders.
A separate case out of North Carolina is adding to that pressure, with federal officials stepping in after concerns a violent suspect could avoid trial at the state level after being deemed incompetent to stand trial.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon moved quickly to make clear the federal case against Decarlos Brown Jr. will proceed regardless of what happens in state court.
“Folks: I had a great call this morning with our US Attorney in Charlotte,” she wrote on X.
Folks: I had a great call this morning with our US Attorney in Charlotte.
Brown remains in federal custody and so the parallel state proceedings are in no way dispositive. There will be a federal competency determination and prosecution track taking precedence. https://t.co/fpQkX6xF5Z— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) April 9, 2026
“Brown remains in federal custody and so the parallel state proceedings are in no way dispositive. There will be a federal competency determination and prosecution track taking precedence.”
Federal prosecutors backed that position, stressing that state rulings would not dictate the outcome.
“The state proceedings, including any competency finding in those proceedings, are completely separate,” the U.S. Attorney’s office wrote.
Brown, 35, is accused of killing Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who had fled war in her home country.
Authorities say he targeted her on a Charlotte light rail train, rising from his seat and launching a sudden attack.
He then drove a knife into her neck multiple times before turning and walking away, leaving her bleeding in place.
The footage shows the aftermath clearly, with the victim slumped in her seat as blood pooled while other passengers remained nearby.
Zarutska died from her injuries. Her killing has since become a focal point in debates over repeat offenders and how violent suspects remain free before trial.
Trump previously highlighted the case during his State of the Union address, tying it directly to his calls for tougher enforcement.
Efforts to memorialize Zarutska have also drawn national attention and pushback.
Elon Musk donated $1 million to fund murals honoring her, aiming to keep attention on the case and what supporters describe as a failure of the system.
Some of those efforts have been blocked by local officials who argue the projects carry a political message.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley pushed back on a proposed mural in his city, criticizing both the process and the intent behind it.
“I regret the state of where we are in politics today where absolutely everything is political and controversial and hard,” he commented.
“There’s nothing we should be doing to take away from the tragedy of the loss of life represented here, but then it was distorted by an erroneous tweet by our president and then a movement was funded by some right-wing billionaires, and it found its way to our community.”
He argued the project does not reflect the city’s approach to public art.
“The murder of the individual depicted in this mural was a devastating tragedy,” he said in a prior statement, “but the misguided, isolating intent of those funding murals like the one across the country is divisive and does not represent Providence.”
