If you saw a young woman bleeding out on a train, stabbed and gasping for life — what would you do? Would you rush to help? Call for emergency aid? Or would you look away? Maybe get off the train? Or worse, pull out your phone and start filming?

That’s the horrifying question forced upon America by the brutal Aug. 22 murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train. Video footage of her final moments shows a frozen look of terror as she is fatally stabbed. But as disturbing as the attack itself is, the reaction of those around her is too. Many passengers didn’t intervene — they got off, stared blankly, or simply filmed the aftermath of violence playing out in front of them. The man who finally rushed to help wasn’t even seen sitting nearby. Others only came after Iryna’s blood had pooled near the doors. (RELATED: She Fled the Ukraine War for Safety. America Delivered Her to a Killer.)

This is not just a story about a horrific crime. It’s a reflection of a culture that often chooses detachment over human compassion. People don’t even try to walk in others’ shoes anymore; they are quick to rush out of the door wearing their own. The footage reveals the brutal reality of modern bystander apathy, a truth many of us don’t want to admit but desperately need to face. (RELATED: Alvin Bragg Bears Blame for Iryna Zarutska’s Murder)

And yet, here’s the paradox: the very video exposing this cold truth also perpetuates the culture it condemns. By circulating widely across social media and news outlets, it invites millions to watch murder from the safety of screens instead of acting. The act of filming violence becomes a spectacle, a digital echo chamber where empathy is replaced by clicks and shares.

An investigative reporter for a conservative website was the first to obtain and release the full unedited footage on Tuesday, sparking a firestorm online. The unedited video spread rapidly, forcing an already occurring national conversation to amplify every millisecond of the murder. Though the outlet eventually took down the unedited version — citing the fact that Iryna’s eyes rolled back in her head — the footage was already out of the bottle, and an edited version was soon made available by the same outlet.

What followed was an argument over ownership, with the reporter, who spent hours wading through bureaucratic procedures to obtain the gruesome video, publicly criticizing reposts that lacked his watermark. While it’s understandable to want to protect one’s work, some commenters did not like how the reporter responded defensively on social media after unleashing such a volatile video.

While this kind of full, disturbing footage can drive real awareness with the promise of meaningful policy changes — and online clicks — it also risks fueling the same cultural rot it exposes. The act of watching can become as passive as the act of standing by. What if the video online hadn’t come from a reporter but from one of the passengers who stood there, phone in hand, doing nothing? Would the reaction be different?

In some ways, it feels more respectful that the source of this footage was an investigative journalist who obtained it the “right” way through official requests. But that doesn’t change the outcome. The video still spreads. The murder still loops. And the same cycle of passive observation over active intervention continues, uninterrupted.

Politically, the murder has been exploited. On one side, many progressive outlets and Democrat politicians were accused of ignoring, downplaying, or delaying coverage of Iryna’s murder to avoid complicating their narratives about refugees and immigration. On the other hand, conservative media and Republican lawmakers seized on the story to demand harsher law enforcement policies and stricter criminal justice policies. Clearly, politicians and journalists working toward creating a system that would protect our people and imprison repeat offenders have the public interest in mind — more so than those who prefer to dodge uncomfortable truths for the sake of a cleaner narrative.

Still, there’s something unsettling in the contrast between coverage across the political spectrum. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the hosts led with reference to “the poor Ukrainians” who are victims in Putin’s war — but not the 23-year-old refugee who fled the country just to face her death in America. Meanwhile, on Fox News, the murder is dissected incessantly as pundits rage about crime, hypocrisy, and lawlessness. One network glosses over homegrown human tragedy. The other turns it into programming. And digital publications and political commentators pontificate, some hoping to help communities while others optimize SEO and shock value to pay the bills.

And yet, somewhere between political spin and moral panic, the real question remains.

If you saw a young woman bleeding out on a train, what would you do?

Because in the end, it’s not about the headlines, or the footage, or the online engagement rate. It’s about the moment. The silence between life and death. The breath you chose to take — or hold — as someone else takes their last.

And in that moment, Iryna Zarutska was alone. Not because no one was out there, but because everyone decided they had something better to do: get off the train, stay seated, or film her dying.

The unedited video forced us to look. But it also showed us exactly what we’ve become.

If that moment ever comes again — and it will — God help us if all we’ve learned is how to hold our phones steadier.

READ MORE from Julianna Frieman:

Charlotte Murderer Who Killed Ukrainian Refugee Shares Family Ties to Another Convicted Killer

She Fled the Ukraine War for Safety. America Delivered Her to a Killer.

AI Is Not the Monster — It Is a Mirror

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.