Iryna Zarutska’s story should have been one of survival, not tragedy. At 23, she had fled the war in Ukraine and sought a safer life in Charlotte, North Carolina, only to be brutally killed on a light-rail train in August 2025. CCTV footage shows her quietly scrolling through her phone before she was suddenly attacked by a man later identified as Decarlos Brown Jr, a repeat offender with a long history of violence and untreated mental illness.
He stabbed her multiple times in the neck and chest, leaving passengers in shock and a community reeling. Her death has sparked outrage well beyond Charlotte, with critics pointing to failures in the justice system and gaps in mental health care that allowed a dangerous man to walk free until it was too late. Now her name has become a painful symbol of both the vulnerability of refugees seeking safety and the consequences of a system that protect violent black criminals, and refuses to put them in jail for their crimes, all in the name of diversity and equity.
