Condolences for Ukrainian Refugee Victim
Former President Donald Trump expressed his sympathies to the family of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee tragically killed in a stabbing incident on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month.
Video footage of the attack emerged recently, provoking strong reactions online. In it, 23-year-old Zarutska appears to be stabbed without provocation by 35-year-old Decarlos Brown, seated behind her in the train.
“There are evil people, and we have to confront that. I just give my love and hope to the family of the young woman who was stabbed,” Trump said.
“A lunatic just got up and started — it’s right on the tape, not really watchable, because it’s so horrible — but just viciously stabbed. She’s just sitting there. So they’re evil people. We have to be able to handle that. If we don’t handle that, we don’t have a country,” he added.
“We’re going to get to the end of it. And you know, when you have horrible killings, you have to take horrible actions,” Trump continued, proposing an end to cashless bail for violent offenders. “Cashless bail started a wave in our country where a killer kills somebody and is out on the street by the afternoon, in many cases, going out and going again.”
The stabbing took place on August 22nd at about 10 p.m. on the Lynx Blue Line. According to an affidavit from ABC News, Zarutska, who fled Ukraine due to the ongoing conflict, unknowingly sat just in front of her attacker.
The train had been moving for “approximately four and a half minutes before the suspect pulls a knife out of his pocket, unfolds the knife, pauses, then stands up, and strikes at the victim three times,” the affidavit stated.
The footage released skips over the gruesome attack but shows Brown wandering the train with the bloody knife while another passenger flees.
Zarutska was pronounced dead at the scene. Brown was arrested shortly after being treated for injuries that weren’t life-threatening, sustained during the attack.
He has a lengthy criminal history, with records dating back to his youth in 2007, and has now been charged with first-degree murder, according to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police.
Charlotte’s Mayor, Vi Lyles, shared her prayers for Zarutska’s grieving family. “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 do to protect our residents and ensure Charlotte is a place where everyone feels safe,” she commented.
Zarutska was remembered in her obituary as a “gifted and passionate artist,” noted for her “kindness, her creativity and the lasting impression she left on everyone she met.”
