If you’re not familiar with the story of Iryna Zarutska, she was a beautiful 23 year-old Ukrainian refugee.
She and her family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to escape the war.
Iryna took a light rail train one night in August after working her job at a local pizzeria. She sat down in the row in front of a man who had been arrested 14 times before and was, according to his own mother, violently schizophrenic. The video of her murder (not embeddable) is here.
I warn you, it's graphic.
Here is a beautiful picture of her and here is a video (again, non-embeddable) of the attack which stops a second before he cuts her throat. Afterwards, the perp, 34 year-old Decarlos Brown, Jr., can be heard saying “I got that white girl.”
Reports are it took more than 90 seconds before anyone came to her aid. Here is a video of the first person -- again, not embeddable.
There were a handful of people sitting nearby. None of them came to her aid. One could (sort of) understand if no one wanted to engage the perp. He’s a big man with a knife. And the last (high profile) time someone tried to stop a perp on a train, the hero ended up indicted; see Daniel Penny.
But to not come to her aid? As Sundance of The Conservative Treehouse so aptly put it, this is our new Kitty Genovese moment.
But that’s just the people on the train.
People in positions of power failed her. How was a violently schizophrenic guy arrested 14 times before walking around free?
The last judge to set him free was a magistrate judge. Why is “magistrate” important? Because one does not have to have a law degree to be a magistrate judge. Merely a Bachelor’s. In anything. You could have a Bachelor’s in Intersectional Basket Weaving Practices of Indigenous Lesbians and get the gig.
If you Google search “how to become a magistrate judge in North Carolina” you will see that beyond the undergraduate degree, there’s just a 40-hour class then you get your gavel.
Magistrates typically manage small claims and civil cases but one power they have is to adjudicate involuntary commitment proceedings.
How is it possible that the person who can send criminals to court ordered treatment centers can own the treatment center?
— C3 (@C_3C_3) September 9, 2025
Insane. pic.twitter.com/PoAuC6nMd7
Teresa Stokes was the last judge, a magistrate, to oversee a case involving 14-times offender Decarlos Brown Jr. Now, Ms. Stokes does have a J.D., a law degree, but she got it from what is widely regarded as the worst law school in the country, Cooley Law School.
Ms. Stokes has another problem it seems. She owns exactly the kind of treatment center someone like Mr. Brown, Jr. would be sent to instead of to prison.
Now, there is no reporting to indicate that this is what happened in this particular case, but it raises a lot of questions about Ms. Stokes motive to become a direct pipeline into her profit-making enterprise, should she choose to do it. Every time she swung the gavel on an eligible perp? Kaching. It’s an enormous conflict of interest.
Ms. Stokes is emblematic of the Democrat DEI policy-of-low-expectations “reimagining” of law enforcement.
White House releases additional receipts on Democrat fueled Charlotte crime pic.twitter.com/wScGa2vBBE
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) September 8, 2025
It certainly pays well.
WHAT??? Charlotte City Manager makes more than our President???
— Sloan Rachmuth (@SloanRachmuth) September 8, 2025
Charlotte is corrupt root to branch. https://t.co/RPo4h9HRiw
How seriously did the Charlotte City Council take the incident?
This seriously:
The Charlotte City Council took a cake break to celebrate a birthday, delaying their discussion about the brutal train stabbing, according to @JoeBrunoWSOC9.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 7, 2025
Local leaders decided this was the time to consume some carbs and sugar for Councilmember Dimple Ajmera.
Once their… pic.twitter.com/UnDTIoaROo
The cut off text reads: Once their tummies were full with cake, the local leaders discussed the tragedy.
Charlotte in pictures. Charlotte City council safety meeting after Iryna Zarutska murder pic.twitter.com/KVjQC4pxQP
— T Bradley (@TBradleyNC) September 7, 2025
And then there’s Charlotte’s mayor:
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles argues that Americans need to have more "compassion" for the homeless after homeless man, Decarlos Brown Jr., stabbed a woman in the throat.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) September 7, 2025
Lyles appeared to come out against arresting homeless maniacs, arguing that "we will never arrest our way out"… pic.twitter.com/8EXhQw65eR
Who else let Iryna down?
You’ll be unsurprised to learn the media.
Though the murder took place on August 22, the video of the attack didn’t become viral until this past weekend.
Once that happened, it took until early this week for the legacy media to even begin reporting on it. And when they did, they disgraced themselves as usual.
"People are murdered every single day…"
— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) September 9, 2025
Instead of admitting that violent criminals belong in jail, the leftist media are accusing Republicans of pouncing on Iryna's murder to defend President Trump's crime crackdown. pic.twitter.com/FDjo5k7g0T
NEW YORK TIMES RACIAL HIERARCHY: Crime against Iryna Zarutska was committed by a capital "B" Black man against a lowercase "w" white woman.
— Douglass Mackey (@DougMackeyCase) September 9, 2025
You are a second-class citizen. pic.twitter.com/FfviZd3uzW
???? UPDATE: Wikipedia editors push to DELETE the killing of Iryna Zarutska by a black male in Charlotte.
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) September 7, 2025
WHY?
"An editor has nominated this article for deletion."
Editors posting things such as "Nothing is remarkable about this."
They want to memory hole it so you forget. pic.twitter.com/1MYUe1XopS
There’s a lot to make you sad here. And angry. Very, very angry. But my gut punch really came when I read her obituary.
Iryna was learning to drive…
Image: Screen shot from X video