In the final seconds of her life, 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska did what so many do at the end of a long shift—she boarded a train, phone in hand, uniform still on, and settled into a quiet seat. The surveillance footage from Charlotte’s Lynx Blue Line captures the moment with devastating clarity. Within minutes, the quiet was shattered, and a promising young life, once spared from war-torn Ukraine, ended violently in the supposed safety of a U.S. transit car.
Released by the Charlotte Area Transit System, the haunting footage shows Zarutska scrolling through her phone around 9:45 p.m. on August 22. Sitting behind her, a man in a red hoodie—later identified as 34-year-old Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr.—waits in still silence. Then, without warning, he rises, pulls out a knife, and stabs Zarutska three times, including a fatal blow to the throat.
Case in point, the mayor immediately calling for compassion for the perpetrator! pic.twitter.com/dVtPCU2Xrx
— Megan Basham (@megbasham) September 6, 2025
Zarutska clutches her neck as blood pools beneath her. She stumbles, collapses. The man calmly strips off his hoodie, walks to the train doors, and stands by as stunned passengers remain frozen, helpless. No altercation. No words exchanged. Just sudden, senseless brutality.
Police arrived minutes later to find Zarutska unresponsive. Despite immediate medical aid, she was pronounced dead at 10:05 p.m. The weapon—a folding knife—was recovered near the outbound platform. Brown, located nearby, bore a cut on his hand and matched the description given by witnesses. He was arrested and now faces a charge of first-degree murder.
According to court records, Brown has a criminal history dating back more than a decade—felony larceny, breaking and entering, and a 2015 conviction for armed robbery that sent him to prison for over six years. Since his release in 2020, he’s racked up more charges, including communicating threats and abusing the 911 system. Authorities confirmed that he and Zarutska had no prior connection. The attack was random.
Divide by zero ratio https://t.co/vEfjFEfX1R
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 7, 2025
This wasn’t just an isolated tragedy—it was a public failure. A young woman who escaped war was murdered not in a battlefield but in the heart of Charlotte, on public transit, under the watch of a system that couldn’t protect her. The brutality of the footage has sparked outrage, grief, and growing pressure on local and state officials.
Charlotte City Council members have expressed deep concern over safety on public transportation. But concern is not enough.
North Carolina Governor Josh Stein, a Democrat, called the video “appalling” and used it to reinforce his proposal for increased law enforcement funding. “We need more cops on the beat,” he wrote, urging the legislature to pass a recruitment and retention package aimed at filling vacancies in police departments statewide.
But the political response has also reignited partisan flames. Republican Rep. Brenden Jones laid blame squarely on years of what he called “woke agendas” in Democrat-led jurisdictions. “Violent criminals commit crimes with impunity, while families live in fear,” he wrote on X.
And it’s not just rhetoric. The public is watching and demanding answers—about how a man with a known history of violent crime was able to roam free, board a train, and murder a stranger without intervention. About how a transit system allowed such a crime to unfold without immediate response. And about whether the systems designed to ensure safety are functioning at all.
Zarutska had fled Ukraine for a new start, seeking refuge from chaos. In Charlotte, she found a job at a pizzeria, a routine, a semblance of peace. But peace proved fleeting.