Recommendations of the Editorial team
The 23-year-old Ukrainian refugees Irya Zarutska was stabbed on August 22nd in Charlotte, North Carolina, on a train of the Lynx Blue Line. The act that was committed without a recognizable motif has exacerbated an already charged discussion about crime, racism and security in public spaces. The publication of the surveillance video on September 5 made the case a viral topic and was immediately exploited by political actors.
IRYNA Zarutska: A new life in the USA
The crime falls during a time when the Trump government uses national guards in several cities and the Supreme Court immigration officers gives the green light for ethnic profiling. The murder has long been part of a political argument that extends far beyond Charlotte.
Zarutska, born in Kiev in 2002, fled with her mother, sister and her brother from the war in Ukraine in 2022. According to her obituary, she quickly learned English, studied at Rowan-Cabarrus Community College and worked in a pizzeria while dreaming of becoming a veterinary assistant.
On the evening of her death, she wore work clothes from Zepeddie’s Pizzeria, listened to music with airpods and scrolled on her cell phone when the perpetrator suddenly attacked her with a pocket knife after a few minutes. She died after three stitches, including one in the throat.
The perpetrator: a homeless man with mental illness
The suspect, the 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, was arrested right after the crime at the next train station. He is accused of the first degree, and he also threatens a federal penalty because of a fatal act in local public transport. Donald Trump demanded the death penalty for Brown on Wednesday.
Brown has had a long history with crimes since 2011, including robbery, threat and burglaries. In 2014 he was convicted of armed robbery and spent more than five years in prison. His mother had temporarily accepted him after his release, but had thrown him out again because of his aggressive behavior. Doctors diagnosed schizophrenia, but several procedures for examining his guilt were without result.
Political instrumentalization and false narrative
Right commentators and Donald Trump himself use the case to propagate “law-and-order” policy. Trump published the photo of Zarutska next to Brown’s police picture and accused the Democrat of being responsible for her death. He omits that current crime statistics in Charlotte show falling violent offenses: In the first half of 2025 there were 25 percent less violent crimes and almost 30 percent less murders than in the previous year.
Despite the opposite claims, the nationwide data situation does not show any increase in the murder rate. According to studies, the likelihood of becoming a victim of violence in public transport is also significantly lower than when driving.
Media, racism and propaganda
Right -wing influencers accuse the media of hiding Zarutska’s case. In fact, local media reported immediately, while national headlines only followed after the video was published. Unlike cases like George Floyd or Jordan Neely, the procedure was not yet advanced, so that there were less reporting.
On the net, extreme right groups used the pictures specifically for racist agitation. Elon Musk shared contributions in which a “Thuggish Black Perp” was mentioned. Other users put the case in the context of an alleged wave of “Black-on-White-Crime”, although FBI data show that murders mainly take place within the same ethnic group.
For example, Zarutska’s tragic death is misused for political agitation – and the suffering of a young woman who was looking for protection from war to fuel resentments and authoritarian politics.