The brutal stabbing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who came to North Carolina to escape war, has shaken America and ignited fury online.
On August 22, Zarutska was riding a train in Charlotte when she was fatally attacked in what authorities have described as an unprovoked assault.
The suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr., was later arrested and charged with first-degree murder. Shockingly, Brown blamed the attack on “materials” inside his body, which he claimed caused him to lash out.
Iryna had texted her boyfriend that evening to say she “would be home soon.”
Instead, her life was stolen before she could ever return.
”Most horrific way”
Zarutska’s family released a heartbreaking statement following the tragedy:
“We are heartbroken beyond words. Iryna came here to find peace and safety, and instead her life was stolen from her in the most horrific way. No family should have to go through this.”
According to her obituary, Iryna fled Ukraine with her mother, brother, and sister in 2022 to escape Russia’s invasion. In Charlotte, she had been “working full-time at a local pizzeria while attending community college to improve her English.”
The attorney representing her family said, “She was a kind and hardworking young woman, deeply loved by her family and friends.”
That night, her boyfriend Stanislav “Stas” Nikulytsia, 21, — who had been living with her in Charlotte for the past year — arrived at the station, only to learn that she had died at the scene.
