On August 22nd, it was Charlotte, the most populous city in North Carolina, USA. Iryna Zarutska, 23, a Ukrainian refugee who had come from a shift at Zepeddie’s Pizza has boarded the Blue Line Light Rail. As the image shows, she had her earphones in and her uniform, and the cap was leaning just like that. She sat by the aisle and relaxed after work and scrolled over the phone.
Right behind her, 34-year-old DeCarlos Brown hoodie up, her face hidden and waiting.
Then it happened. Without warning, the man opened the knife and stabbed him in the neck and chest multiple times. Irina gasped, put her hand in her mouth before falling down. The passengers froze, some of which recoiled and one left. But most of them did nothing. Two minutes later, the train stopped and Brown calmed down and left. Iryna never woke up again.
Iryna Zarutska’s life: fleeing Ukraine and chasing American dreams
Iryna’s life was not easy. She fled Kiev in 2022, fled the Putin bomb and pursued her dreams of safety and independence, like all of us. She returned home to study art, spoke fluent English, and loved animals. Her big American dream was to become a veterinarian assistant.
Until then, in Charlotte, she worked at a pizza shop to pay bills. “We lost not only our incredible employees, but our true friends,” wrote Zepeddie’s Pizza on social media.
According to WCNC Charlotte, “Iryna has always been very kind, very supportive and had a heart of money,” a family friend said. She simply dreamed of a normal life in the United States, and walked her dog in her spare time. And she was doing it with a big smile. I lit up her whole neighborhood. “She loved animals more than anything,” her friend recalled.
Ended in the US by a shaky man
But in the end, fate was cruel for her. Iryna Zarutska became the tale of unignored systemic failures and attention to the randomness of dangers of cities, which pride themselves on safety and modernity.
Brown, according to the past, is a paranoid delusion about the “chip” that controls his body, a rap sheet dating back to 2007, 14 criminal charges and multiple prison stints. His family reportedly sought help.
But even so, DeCarlos Brown was on the train that night with a knife in his hand, targeting people no one could have predicted. “This is a system failure,” said one federal official. “Mental health and criminal justice both failed. She paid for it in her life.”
Brutal crimes have shocked not only the United States, but the whole world. In a statement last week, President Donald Trump himself called for the death penalty for the murderer.
Warnings and wake-up calls
Irina’s funeral in Huntersville was quiet, but saddened. Friends and neighbors left the flowers, and the Ukrainians said a short prayer, saying that they were covered in blue and yellow scarves. Her colleague lighted candles in a pizza shop. “We lost a friend, light. She will never be forgotten,” they said.
Irina fled the war in her own country, merely to meet violence at commuter train stops. She survived the bomb, crossed the sea, and truly pursued American dreams. However, her life and her dreams ended with meaningless, cold-blooded atrocities.
Her story isn’t just tragic, but it’s a warning and a wake-up call. For systems of protection, for strangers who freeze when action is needed, and for a world where promising lives cannot be ignored. Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian, dreamer and refugee, has been victim of a meaningless and preventable murder.
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