She Fled the Ukraine War for Safety. America Delivered Her to a Killer. | The American Spectator

On August 22, 2025, tragedy struck on a Charlotte LYNX Blue Line train when 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee, was stabbed to death by Decarlos Brown Jr., a career criminal with a lengthy record. Zarutska had fled war-torn Ukraine, seeking safety and a new beginning. Instead, she found herself violently knifed to death at 10:30 p.m. while simply sitting with headphones and scrolling on her phone.

Surveillance video released by the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) paints a chilling scene: she boards the train dressed in her pizzeria uniform, takes a seat, and within minutes is stabbed multiple times in the neck by Brown, who had no prior interaction with her as she sat in front of him. Brown exits the train, drops the knife, is arrested shortly thereafter, and charged with first-degree murder.

She ran from war in Ukraine. She came here for safety.

And America FAILED her.

23-year-old Iryna Zarutska was butchered on a Charlotte light rail, her throat cut open by a violent repeat offender who had been arrested 14 times and was STILL free.

This wasn’t random. This was… pic.twitter.com/woRCbMyioq

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 6, 2025

Brown’s criminal history is extensive. The 35-year-old has been arrested no fewer than 14 times, the New York Post reported, and his mother had him evaluated for aggressive behavior after he was released from prison after five years for armed robbery, according to WSOC-TV reporter Joe Bruno. Brown’s mother had her son involuntarily committed, and he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. She kicked him out of her house when he became too dangerous — that’s why the media is making this about a “homeless man.”

Much of the media coverage centered not on the victim and her story, but on the assailant — portraying Brown as yet another cautionary tale of mental illnesses and homelessness. While this may be true, the media barely made an attempt to humanize Zarutska. They could have asked why she boarded the light rail so late, why she was working such hours, and whether she had a family. But of course, they didn’t, as headlines and pundits largely sidestepped the violent act itself to focus on the “systemic failures” that supposedly led him there.

A GoFundMe fundraiser was even launched for Brown, prompting outrage as the narrative pivoted toward pity for the killer instead of justice for the innocent woman whose life he stole. Instead of grappling with the implications of allowing a mentally unstable, repeat violent offender to roam free, media outlets have turned the story into a familiar script: another failure of the system, another man “failed by society.” They want you to believe that the system failed the killer, not the victim. This reframing ignores the hard truth; this was a preventable tragedy, enabled by a justice system more focused on rehabilitation and its political reputation than actual public safety.

Just as President Donald Trump prepares to reintroduce law-and-order policies to cities like Chicago — policies aimed at getting dangerous offenders off the streets — the media is busy softening the image of a man who stabbed a young woman to death without provocation. Compare this to how quickly coverage disappeared after a transgender Minneapolis Catholic school shooter gunned down two children, one age 8 and the other age 10, in late August. None of these propagandists wanted to poke holes in the gender identity debate by questioning those mental health implications. And because that murderer used a firearm, media outlets easily pushed their gun control narrative. In Iryna’s case, no gun was involved — only a knife, wielded by a repeat offender that no law could have stopped. (RELATED: Wikipedia Is Trying to Memory-Hole the Minneapolis Shooter’s Transgender Identity)

And the Charlotte City Council wasn’t any better in their Sept. 2 meeting discussing the crime — they took a break to eat cake.

Here’s the cake pic.twitter.com/2TIOYdbYWh

— Joe Bruno (@JoeBrunoWSOC9) September 2, 2025

Despite video evidence and the victim’s permissible immigration status, Democrat leaders remain largely silent, prompting sharp criticism from Republicans, conservative voices, and right-leaning media. President Trump even addressed the murder in remarks Monday to reporters, vowing to “confront” the “evil people” in America. There is a glaring disconnect: the same Democrat officials who displayed Ukrainian flags in their social media profiles, some who waved the Ukrainian flag in the U.S. Congress last year, now hold back comment on this tragic, violent crime.

🚨 BREAKING: President Trump is planning to look into the kiIIing of Iryna Zarutska on a train in Charlotte

“Horrible… I’ll know all about it by tomorrow morning.”

After the Charlotte Mayor refused to condemn the attacker, the city may need federal intervention. pic.twitter.com/3vefQcnpXK

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 7, 2025

On one hand, Democrats champion the plight of immigrants — codifying them in sympathetic rhetoric and symbolism. Yet on the other hand, they’ve been simultaneously silent or resistant to law and order, especially when a legal immigrant was brutally murdered by a criminal with a documented history. It raises a question: is the political embrace of immigrants conditional — warm when they fit as foot soldiers for the blue agenda, but overlooked when it points to red flags and structural failures?

Moreover, many Democrats decry “big business” and “billionaires” by echoing slogans like “eat the rich” while shrugging at the exploitation of cheap labor by illegal immigrants at your Home Depot. Meanwhile, hardworking, law-abiding immigrants like Zarutska, who came here seeking peace — and contribute to local commerce — are left to fall victim to violent criminals in a transit system lacking meaningful security.

Unless Charlotte wants to end up with federal troops on its doorstep and its name dragged into Trump’s next law-and-order rally, city leaders better get their act together — fast. The president will not turn a blind eye by pouring money into a local government that will likely go out and buy another cake to congratulate itself while blood dries on the train floor.

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Julianna Frieman is a writer based in North Carolina. She received her bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is pursuing her master’s degree in Communications (Digital Strategy) at the University of Florida. Her work has been published by the Daily Caller, The American Spectator, and The Federalist. Follow her on X at @juliannafrieman.