Horrific footage of a career criminal stabbing a Ukrainian refugee from behind on a North Carolina train has prompted a national uproar – but you won’t find it on any liberal media websites.
Recently surfaced surveillance footage shows the suspect, whom police have named as Decarlos Brown Jr., 35, killing Iryna Zarutska, 23, on board a South End light rail train in Charlotte on August 22.
The crazed attacker can be seen lunging at Zarutska from behind, before the footage skips the graphic slaughter to show him carrying a knife dripping with blood as he walked through the train carriage and another passenger sprinted away.
Zarutska came to the US for safety after fleeing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ongoing invasion of her home country, and the shocking video of her final moments exploded online.
People took to social media to share their sadness that she was not protected by the state of North Carolina or the liberal city of Charlotte, where Brown had allegedly been arrested more than 14 times previously but remained on the streets.
However, the shocking story is notably absent from US liberal media sites, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press and CNN.
The Daily Mail has contacted the outlets for clarification on the reasoning behind their editorial judgment.
Democrat Mayor of Charlotte Vi Lyles suggested that some publishers chose not to share the footage ‘out of respect for Iryna’s family’ – but the police force she is in charge of made the video public first of all.
The Daily Mail has contacted Lyles’s office for more information.
In her statement, she said: ‘The video of the heartbreaking attack that took Iryna Zarutska’s life is now public.
‘I want to thank our media partners and community members who have chosen not to repost or share the footage out of respect for Iryna’s family.
‘This was a senseless and tragic loss. My prayers remain with her loved ones as they continue to grieve through an unimaginable time.
‘Like so many of you, I’m heartbroken — and I’ve been thinking hard about what safety really looks like in our city.
‘I remain committed to doing all we can to protect our residents and ensure Charlotte is a place where everyone feels safe.’
But people on social media lambasted the liberal media for the lack of coverage, with many speculating that the outlets did not want to write about the killing for racial reasons.
Elon Musk highlighted the lack of coverage by re-sharing one post counting how many articles each outlet had written about the stabbing, with the comment: ‘Zero’.
‘If you search MSNBC, CNN, NY Times or Washington Post, you won’t find any mention of this news story about Iryna Zarutska,’ one X user also wrote.
‘The Democrats on the Charlotte city council tried to block the release of the video footage.
‘Why are they avoiding the story of a Ukrainian white girl being so brutally kiIIed?’
‘How can all these outlets have zero stories on a deadly attack and still claim to keep the public informed?’ another person wrote.
A third X user slammed the media for ‘ignoring “black on white” crime’.
‘Iryna Zarutska was brutally murdered, yet CNN, NYT, WaPo, BBC, Reuters said NOTHING.
‘Zero coverage. If it were the other way around, the outrage would be everywhere.’
Brown Jr. had a lengthy rap sheet and had been released by the Democrat-run police force several times before.
A Daily Mail review of police records found that he was charged with misusing 911 as recently as January, when he told cops he believed someone had given him a ‘man-made’ material that controlled his actions.
He was released without bail and a trial pending when he allegedly stabbed Zaruska to death.
Brown served five years in prison for a 2014 armed robbery and was released in September 2020.
In February 2021, Brown was arrested for assaulting his sister in Charlotte and leaving her with minor injuries, according to police records obtained by the Daily Mail.
That same month, he was again arrested for injury to personal property and trespassing.
A police report from that incident said Brown ‘returned to the address after being told he was not allowed back and kicked and damaged the front door of the listed victim’s residence’.
In July 2022, Brown was arrested for a domestic disturbance.
‘[Brown] was arrested for disorderly conduct. The suspect was yelling and cursing, causing a disturbance and drawing the attention of multiple tenants while on the property,’ a police report read.
Brown’s arrest records go as back as 2007, when he was still a minor.
Over the next seven years, he was arrested at least six times for crimes including felony larceny, robbery with a dangerous weapon and communicating threats.
According to the Charlotte Observer, most of the charges he faced during that time were dropped.
When reached for comment, the Mecklenburg District Attorney’s Office told the Daily Mail Tuesday it cannot speak about defendants with pending cases.
‘In broad terms, it remains the position of the District Attorney’s office that those who commit violent crimes should be held in custody pending trial,’ the DA’s Office said.
Brown’s latest alleged crime is his most serious.
Local Councilman Edwin Peacock demanded answers from authorities, noting the community no longer feels safe to ride public transportation.
‘Right now, the trust and confidence that we have right now, and particularly between South End and Uptown, it’s very fragile right now,’ he said.
‘The story is heart-wrenching, and if, obviously, what we’re hearing is true, clearly we need to give that family answers.
‘And we, more importantly, need to give all the citizens who are riding the light rail a lot of confidence that [they’re] going to be safe.’
In the horrifying footage, the suspect police identified as Brown was seen watching Zarutska for some time after she sat in the seat in front of him, eventually taking out what appeared to be a blade from his pocket.
He then stood up and loomed over the 23-year-old, swinging the knife at her as she sat with her phone.
The knifeman was shown leaving a trail of blood throughout the train as other passengers appeared not to realize the killing that had taken place, before he casually changed his clothes.
Brown was arrested soon after and charged with first-degree murder. His bond was subsequently denied by a judge and he remains in custody.
Zarutska’s heartbroken family said on a GoFundMe page that she had only arrived in the US in 2022 ‘seeking safety from the war’ in her home country, and was ‘hoping for a new beginning’ before the slaying.
