The national media has little to no interest in the shocking August murder of a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte, North Carolina, train.
Tragically for the people of North Carolina, their local media also has little interest in getting to the bottom of the killing.
The case has all the elements of a compelling crime story that should have dominated several news cycles.
A young immigrant woman was brutally stabbed in an unprovoked attack while passengers stood by, unwilling or too afraid to act.
Her name was Iryna Zarutska. She was 23 and had fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion, WBTV reported.
On Aug. 22, she boarded a Lynx Blue Line light rail train just before 10 p.m. Minding her own business, she wore her work uniform and sat quietly. Minutes later, she was dead.
Unfortunately, she took a seat in front of 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr.
Surveillance video later showed Brown allegedly pulling out a knife and standing up. Without warning, he lunged at Zarutska and allegedly stabbed her repeatedly in the neck.
Why is the disgusting, senseless, unprovoked murder of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska by a man named Decarlos Brown Jr. on a train in Charlotte NC not getting more media attention?! pic.twitter.com/9UDPxguWhN
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) September 7, 2025
She died on the train. The Charlotte Area Transit System released edited footage of the moments before and after the attack on Friday.
The video went viral on X over the weekend, but the national media almost entirely ignored it.
74,221 AP articles about George Floyd
0 AP articles about Iryna Zarutska pic.twitter.com/ZSb1X90OYC— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) September 7, 2025
Axios finally mentioned the killing on Monday, but framed it as a political talking point with the headline: “Stabbing video fuels MAGA’s crime message.”
Local news did more digging, but had nothing to offer of any substance.
On Friday, WBTV anchor Jamie Boll narrated a timeline for his network’s viewers of the killing and declined to show viewers much of the video.
And after nearly four minutes of coverage, Boll ended his segment with a statement from Charlotte Area Transit.
“CAT says it is working on ways to keep fare skippers off mass transit,” he said.
WARNING: The following video contains images that may be disturbing for some readers.
That was his big takeaway after a refugee was murdered in cold blood. What Boll did not mention was critical. Newsweek reported Brown had convictions for armed robbery, larceny, breaking and entering, and shoplifting.
He was also diagnosed with schizophrenia after serving prison time.
Why was he free to ride a train alongside law-abiding people?
Why were prosecutors not protecting the public from a repeat offender?
Instead of addressing those questions, Boll talked about toll evasion and moved on.
Zarutska escaped a war zone only to die at the hands of a violent American criminal who had no business sharing a train with civilized people.
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
And a local news anchor essentially shrugged it off with a jaw-dropping line about ticket skipping. What a disgrace.
Zarutska’s murder is being ignored, in large part because her alleged killer was yet another career criminal who was treated with kid gloves by the local courts.
There is also another angle to the senseless murder that leads to some uncomfortable questions.
If Zarutska had been black, would her gruesome murder have made it onto the front page of The New York Times? Probably not.
Would reporters with the national and local media have found the killing worthy of covering if Zarutska had been black and Brown had been white?
That part goes without saying.
George Floyd—5,897
Trayvon Martin—1,190
Kilmar Abrego Garcia—56
Daniel Penny—100
Iryna Zarutska—0
New York Times is propaganda. pic.twitter.com/042SZW0g3G
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) September 8, 2025
Dear CNN, WaPo, NYT, ABC, NBC etc etc
If you want to know why your ratings are in the tank and no one likes you, look no further than the brutal murder of Iryna Zarutska who moved to US to escape war in Ukraine, a story you refuse to tell. Sadly she couldn’t survive the… pic.twitter.com/xX0ke82dRb
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) September 7, 2025
Wokepedia strikes again. Trying to memory hole Iryna Zarutska’s m*rder! pic.twitter.com/LpI8NFKFHV
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 7, 2025
Ultimately, legacy media does not want to discuss Zarutska’s murder because it unsettles people to the realities of urban crime and race and disturbs narratives about how Democratic Party elected officials allow violent criminals to walk the streets.
In lieu of asking serious questions or doing their jobs, people such as Boll are more than happy to imply that local transit could have prevented an unthinkable crime — if only more had been done to ensure he had paid for a ticket.
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