The Berkeley-based CEO of Intercom, a major player in the AI customer service space, called for the public execution of the suspect in the gruesome killing of a Ukrainian refugee on a North Carolina train.
Posting a screenshot of the incident to his X account Monday, CEO Eoghan McCabe said, “I do think that rapid, public executions for crimes like this are a spiritual goal that we should point ourselves towards. I worry about Western society if we can’t react in proportion to how evil this is.”
McCabe was referring to the Aug. 22 killing of Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed aboard a light-rail train in Charlotte, N.C. Video obtained by WBTV shows the suspect, Decarlos Brown, appearing to strike Zarutska in the neck with a pocket knife shortly after she sits in front of him.
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Dressed in her pizzeria work uniform, Zarutska looks at her phone while Brown sits in the row behind her. In a widely shared screenshot from the attack, Zarutska is seen cowering in her seat as Brown looms above before the attack.
The case has taken center stage in national politics and on social media. President Donald Trump chimed in about the stabbing, blaming Democrats in Charlotte and North Carolina for their policies on crime. Other conservatives have accused the mainstream news media of ignoring the case because the suspect is a Black man and the victim was a white woman. The killing has been widely reported in national outlets.
Going back more than a decade, Brown had 14 arrests in Mecklenberg County, which includes Charlotte, for charges including armed robbery and shoplifting, The New York Times reported. Brown, who was reportedly homeless at the time of Zarutska’s killing, has been charged in state court with first-degree murder. Federal prosecutors charged him Tuesday with committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.
Charlotte is holding its Democratic primary on Tuesday. Incumbent Mayor Vi Lyles has been criticized for urging compassion in the wake of the killing and saying, “We will never arrest our way out of issues such as homelessness and mental health.” Lyles faces four challengers from within her party.
Big Tech’s top brass have been loudly supporting harder-line approaches since the presidential election. Most recently, tech CEOs displayed fealty at last week’s White House dinner hosted by the president and first lady.
McCabe, one of four Intercom cofounders, has been unabashed about posting vehement right-wing political opinions and combative commentary on social media while also trying to project his company as an essential, reliable service to businesses He reportedly donated $200,000 to Trump in 2024 and posted a picture of himself with Trump at a David Sacks fundraiser last summer in San Francisco.
A 2019 article in The Information revealed that at least half a dozen Intercom employees had left the company over allegations that McCabe made unwanted advances toward female staffers. The company conducted an investigation and found no merit to the claims.
The CEO, who works in San Francisco and lives in Berkeley, could not be reached for comment.
Intercom boasts high-profile firms Anthropic, Amazon, Fidelity, and Pfizer as clients, as well as a host of smaller companies. The client companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Dan Shipper, CEO and cofounder of media startup Every, called out McCabe for a “pretty gross take tbh.”
McCabe replied by asking, “When was your last testosterone test?”
Shipper punched back, saying, “Oh, wow, I didn’t realize supporting public executions as spiritual goal was a side effect of [testosterone replacement therapy]. I thought it was just losing all your hair!” McCabe is bald in online photos.
McCabe replied: “Low T confirmed. Fixing that will make you a more successful CEO and happier man.”
McCabe’s bio on his X account quotes the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning poet Mary Oliver’s “The Summer Day”: “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
It turns out McCabe plans to campaign for public executions and regular testosterone tests for men.