A young Ukrainian refugee named Iryna Zarutska was brutally murdered on a Charlotte light rail train in August. The 23-year-old woman fled her war-torn homeland seeking safety in America. Instead, she found death at the hands of a career criminal who was riding the train illegally without a ticket.
The surveillance video is hard to watch. Carlos Brown, a 34-year-old repeat offender, sat behind Iryna on the train. Within just four minutes of her boarding, he pulled out a knife and stabbed her multiple times in the neck. She died right there on the train while other passengers watched.
Here’s what makes this case so disturbing. The video shows other passengers on that train car doing almost nothing to help this innocent young woman. They sat there while a violent criminal took her life. Where was the courage to step up and fight back against evil?
This is what happens when we create a culture of fear and weakness. Americans used to rush toward danger to protect the innocent. Now too many people pull out their phones instead of taking action. Iryna might be alive today if just one passenger had shown some backbone.
The killer had been arrested many times before for robbery, breaking and entering, and assault. He was exactly the kind of dangerous criminal who should have been locked up permanently. Instead, our weak justice system kept letting him back on the streets to terrorize innocent people.
Transit officials admit there were police officers on the train that day. But they were in a different car and couldn’t help when it mattered most. This shows how useless our security theater really is. Criminals don’t follow the rules while law-abiding citizens suffer the consequences.
Charlotte officials are now talking about increasing patrols and reviewing safety policies. That’s too little, too late for Iryna and her family. She came to America seeking the protection our country used to promise. We failed her completely.
This tragedy shows everything wrong with America today. We have weak law enforcement, repeat criminals running free, and citizens too scared to defend each other. Iryna Zarutska deserved better from the country she trusted to keep her safe. We must demand real change before more innocent lives are lost.
