The Silence Around Iryna Zarutska, Charlotte City Crime, and the Media's Silence

A young refugee’s life was cut short on a Charlotte train — and the story barely made a ripple until the video leaked online. In this episode, Ryan breaks down the case of Iryna Zarutska, the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who came to America for safety and was murdered on public transit in Charlotte, North Carolina.

We dig into what happened on that train, the failures of the justice system that left a career criminal free after 14 prior arrests, and the shocking silence from mainstream outlets. From Mayor Vi Lyles’ response to CNN’s Brian Stelter spinning the outrage, this story shows exactly how media bias, soft-on-crime policies, and political hypocrisy collide.

🎙 Stay in the Fray isn’t afraid to say her name, call out crime in America, and demand accountability when others stay quiet.

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
A young woman is butchered on a train and his first instinct is
to scold the public for reactingthe wrong way.
No sympathy, no anger at the system that kept a violent man
free. Just magus politicizing this.
News flash Brian. Wanting justice is not
political. Wanting to lock up murderers

(00:20):
isn't a MAGA talking point. It's basic survival.
Hey guys, you've probably seen the brutal clip that's been
everywhere on social media. Although there's tragedy after
tragedy, it seems every day, every other day.
So you don't know which one I'm talking about for this show.

(00:42):
This is one that the media outlets, the big ones, avoided
like it was contagious. They stayed quiet until they had
no choice. So I want to walk through what
really happened and all the red flags involved just popped up in
the aftermath. Her name was Irena Zarutzka.

(01:07):
She was 23 years old and she wasUkrainian.
She came here legally with her family in 2022 after Russia
invaded. She fled war, literal bombs
falling on her city. She thought America would be
safe. She got a job at a pizza shop.
She worked hard. She loved animals.

(01:28):
She wanted to build a normal life.
But late last month, yes, it wasthat long ago, and it's just now
being spread in Charlotte, NC. She got on a train, and she sat
down in front of a man named De Carlos Brown Junior, a career
criminal, 14 prior arrests, schizophrenic.

(01:52):
He's out roaming the streets like nothing's wrong.
What happened next is one of themost horrifying things that
you'll ever see. I'm going to play this
surveillance clip if you haven'tseen it yet.
Warning, it's very graphic, The one I'm playing.
He stops before the actual the actual stabbing.

(02:13):
To be blunt, if you have seen it, I'm sorry to put it in front
of you again. This is what the media is trying
to bury and it deserves to be seen.
So roll this. This pulls it right out.

(02:53):
Footage that came out after thatshowed him stabbing her in the
chest three times. She was stunned.
She almost felt like I think shejust thought she hit her.
She looked down and saw what hadhappened and slowly slid off of
the train chair and onto the ground as she bled out and die.

(03:13):
Other angles they show her in shock, they show her crying,
they show end up showing bleeding out.
This is the one I chose because it's vulgar.
But the part that makes you sickall over again is that there
were four other passengers in that car.
They sat there, they did nothing.
They just let her die. Some of them even started to
walk away. And if that's not enough to turn

(03:35):
your stomach, listen to this. As the killer walks off, knife
dripping with actual blood, Brown reportedly takes off his
sweatshirt and says, and I quote, I got that white girl.
I got her. That's not me speculating.
That's what multiple reports saywas caught on video by

(03:55):
witnesses. You tell me, what does that
sound like? Because if that's not a hate
crime, the word has no meaning anymore.
This happened in late August, but you didn't hear about it
until a week later. At least when the surveillance
video leaked and social media forced the issue, the major

(04:16):
outlets ignored it until they couldn't anymore.
The the usual CNNMSNBC, the whole lot of them.
Why? Because it doesn't fit any of
the narratives. Wrong color victim, wrong color
attacker, wrong weapon. It was a knife so they can't use
it for their gun control lectures.

(04:37):
And the wrong kind of immigrant.She was actually here legally so
media just let it vanish, pretend it didn't happen.
And that's exactly why people don't trust the media anymore.
They bury stories like this whenthe truth hurts their politics.
So here's what we're going to do.
We're going to unpack the horrorof this hypocrisy, the political

(05:00):
spin, and the cowardice of the leaders who refused to face the
reality of what's happening in their cities.
This is Stay in the Fray podcast.
It is September the 10th, 2025. Let's roll.
So the country, the world reallyjust watched a young woman get
butchered on a train. You'd expect the mayor of the

(05:22):
city that it happened and to come out swinging, demanding
justice, vowing to make the citysafe.
None so much. This is Charlotte, and Mayor Vai
Lyles gave us one of the weakest, most tone deaf
responses I've ever seen. Allow me to inform you of what
Vai said. This is a tragic situation that

(05:45):
sheds light on problems with society's safety Nets related to
mental health care and the systems that should be in place.
OK. Oh good.
She's already softening the killer into a victim.
He didn't commit murder. No, he just fell through a
safety net. Poor guy.
She emphasized that the suspect has long struggle with mental

(06:06):
health and appears to have suffered a crisis.
You think a fucking crisis, lady, A crisis is a panic attack
at work. This man pulled a knife and
butchered someone on a train. Call it what it is, she
continues. Mental health problems must be

(06:27):
treated with the same compassion, diligence and
commitment as cancer or heart disease.
So now we're comparing cold blooded murder to cancer
patients? This is unreal.
Do you hear that stabbing innocent people is just simply
another diagnosis to treat I want, she said.

(06:50):
I want to be clear that I'm not villainizing those who struggle
with mental health or those who are unhoused.
Well, of course not. God forbid we villainize the guy
dripping in blood saying I got that white girl.
Heaven forbid we hurt his feelings.
It's not about those other people right now, it's about
this person and even more those who are unhoused.

(07:15):
Homeless are more frequently thevictim of crimes and not the
perpetrators. So it's OK because usually the
unhoused are the victims. There is 0 point in saying this
at this time. Tell me the next time a homeless
man gets butchered by an innocent woman on a train, I'll

(07:38):
condemn that too. I've never heard of that
happening ever. But hey, I'll bet CNN would
cover that one wall to wall for you.
She says we will never arrest our way out of issues such as
homelessness and mental health. That's great.

(08:00):
The translation. Just just let them roam on the
streets until they kill someone.That's her plan.
What in the actual fuck? This is supposed to be
leadership. There is more sympathy for the
killer than the victim. This is a pattern.
That isn't compassion, it's cowardice.

(08:21):
It's disgusting and a much backlash for this woke, cowardly
response. The mayor released a more
appropriate response a little later on.
She said. As I reflect on the tragic
murder of Irena Zarutzka, my heart continues to go out for
her family. Well, finally, it took the

(08:43):
Internet ripping you apart to get even here.
She goes on to call it a tragic failure by the courts and the
magistrates. Well, no shit.
Brown had 14 arrests and was still free.
Just walking around. It took you 3 days.
That's how long it was in between to say what everyone
else said immediately. She goes on our police arrest

(09:05):
people only to see them released, which undermines
safety. And thanks for noticing.
You run the city, do something about that.
She says we need a bipartisan solution to repeat offenders.
What the fuck does bipartisan solution mean?
What does this have to do with anything?
Right now the translation is I'mstill more worried about my

(09:26):
politics than people bleeding out on my trains.
She announced that there were going to be more security
patrols, more guards, redeployedstaff.
Those are great ideas. Finally, it should have been
your first words, not your last.When your first instinct after a
murder is to protect the image of the criminal instead of the

(09:47):
life of the victim, you shouldn't be in office.
That simple. Vile Isle showed us exactly
where her priorities are. And spoiled alert they're not
with the innocent people of Charlotte.
And now we get to CNN, because of course they had to step in
and make this whole thing worse.Enter Brian Stelter, the guy who

(10:09):
thinks his job is scolding America for noticing reality.
Let's hear what he had to say. Story has trickled up from so
from local news to social media and now to the president's
attention. And it's being used, as you
said, Brianna, as a political symbol with MAGA media calling
for more forceful punishments and more incarceration.
I have to say some of the replies to Musk, some of the

(10:31):
comments around this story are baldly racist stocking fear of
African Americans because this man attacked a white woman.
The open racism on sites like X today, it's eye popping, but
there are also legitimate questions about this so-called
career criminal, someone who hadbeen a repeat offender.
And those questions, I hope they're not lost amid all of the

(10:51):
cesspool kind of comments on social media.
Oh, man, I wouldn't use the wordbaldly at all, Stelter.
Let's take this piece by piece. Stelter says the story went from
local news to social media to the president's attention.
Yeah, Brian, because you didn't cover it.
That's how news works. People see it, they share it,

(11:11):
and shame networks like yours into finally pretending to care.
You're welcome. He said it's being used as a
political symbol. MAGA is calling for more
forceful punishment and incarceration.
Oh, no, the horror. People want criminals punished.
Imagine that. According to Stelter, it's now a
partisan issue not to want your daughter stabbed on a fucking

(11:33):
train. It's unreal, Stelter says some
of the comments probably racist.You mean the killer walking out
with the blood on his knife saying I got that white girl?
Is that the racism that you mean, Brian, or is there only
racism when it doesn't target white people?

(11:56):
That's the message that you're sending here, just in case you
didn't know, he said. We need to be questioning the
career criminal aspect. I hope it doesn't get lost in
social media. Lost in social media?
But that's the only reason anyone's even talking about it's
you clowns ignored it. Social media is the only place
that news breaks anymore. You're just mad it makes you

(12:20):
look irrelevant, which you are. Ryan Stelter is the human
embodiment of media gaslighting.A young woman is butchered on a
train and his first instinct is to scold the public for reacting
the wrong way. No sympathy, no anger at the
system that kept the Violet man free.
Just magus politicizing this News flash Brian.

(12:42):
Wanting justice is not political.
Wanting to lock up murderers isn't a MAGA talking point.
It's basic survival. You're so blinded by Trump
Derangement Syndrome, you and your your whole fucking channel,
you can't even say, hey, maybe stabbing refugees on trains is
bad. Instead, you frame the outrage

(13:04):
as what's dangerous. You attack the people who are
demanding safety. You side with the chaos because
that's what the narrative demands.
The left wonders why America hastuned you out.
These people do not report the news anymore.
They protect criminals, they scold the public, and they spend

(13:26):
tragedy into lectures. Stelter doesn't belong on a news
channel. He belongs in a parody sketch.
But sadly, the joke's on us because his shtick is real life.
I want to talk about the hypocrisy.
This is a big deal. This story exposes it like
nothing else. Hypocrisy of exposing is one of

(13:49):
the main things I do here. Do you remember Daniel Penny and
Jordan Neely on the train? How about Derek Chauvin and
George Floyd? Obviously those names were
shoved down America's throat formonths.
Statues, murals, silence at sports games, media panels,
crying every night. You couldn't escape it.

(14:11):
And then here comes Irena Zarutzka, a 23 year old refugee
working in a pizza shift. No criminal record, no history
of violence, Just a hard workingyoung woman riding the train
home. She gets butchered by a career
criminal with a knife. And the same media outlets that
gave you wall to wall George Floyd coverage, they go radio

(14:35):
silent. A George Floyd career criminal
who once robbed a pregnant womanat knifepoint.
Multiple prior arrests. Jordan Neely threatening
passengers on a subway saying hewas going to kill someone, he
was ready to die and he had 40 something prior arrests.

(14:59):
These people were painted as martyrs, Saints, civil rights
icons. It was disgusting.
Meanwhile, Irena Zarutzka, innocent, hard working law
abiding, doesn't even get a headline until social media
forces it. Definitely no murals.
I didn't hear any silence beforeany kickoffs this last weekend.

(15:20):
No speeches in Congress. Why?
Because she doesn't check any oftheir boxes.
I'll break it down real quick. How about race?
She's the wrong color. White victim doesn't fit the
script. How about the attacker?
Wrong color again, Can't admit that.
Crime stats. They don't want you to see the

(15:40):
weapon. That's a knife.
That's not a gun. Wait, they can't scream ban the
AR Fifteens? She was an immigrant.
Here's the kicker, she was a legal immigrant, A refugee, The
very thing they claim to care about.
I suppose she needed to be an illegal immigrant to be under
their radar. If they highlight this event,

(16:06):
this tragedy, this horror, it pits their protected groups
against each other. So they bury it.
Tell me this, if a white guy walked up and stabbed a black
woman on that train, do you think we'd even be talking about
anything else? You'd have riots in the streets.
Al Sharpton booking his plane ticket before the blood was even

(16:28):
dry. But when it's flipped, silence,
blackout. And you can't deny it.
Because for the media, it's never about the victim.
It's about the narrative. And if your tragedy doesn't help
the agenda, you don't exist. In their eyes, Irena should be a

(16:48):
household name, should be the face of vigils, of outrage, of
demands for safety. Instead, she's just another
casualty and a system that values spin over lives.
That's the hypocrisy and we're sick of it.
So here we are, another young woman dead, another career

(17:10):
criminal roaming the streets when he should have been locked
up years ago. Another mayor giving sympathy
speeches for the killers, another CNN anchor scolding you
for being upset, and another example of why the majority of
this country is furious. They told us George Floyd was a

(17:31):
St. They told us Jordan Neely just
had some issues. They told us that criminals were
victims and victims were disposable.
But when Irena Zarutzka, legal immigrant, refugee, hard working
young woman, was slaughtered on a train, they shrugged and
looked the other way. Because admitting the truth
would blow up the entire narrative of who the good guys

(17:54):
are and who the bad guys are. The left loves to call
themselves the party of tolerance, compassion and love.
Tolerance for killers, compassion for criminals.
Love for chaos, for the actual innocent, for the refugee who
trusted America to be safer thana war-torn Ukraine.

(18:17):
Nothing. They don't care.
If this is what tolerance looks like, they can keep it.
If this is love, I want no part of it.
Crime is out of control. Soft on crime policies have
failed. Bail reform has failed.
Liberal mayors and city councilshave failed.

(18:40):
And every time something like this happens, they point fingers
at Trump or MAGA instead of admitting that their own
disaster. That's why their approval
ratings are tanking. That's why people are waking up.
That's why they're fading. And it's only going to get worse
for them. This podcast is called Stay in

(19:02):
the Fray for a reason. Because this is the fight.
This is the battleground. And the truth is simple.
We will not stop talking about Irena Zarutzka.
We will not let her name be buried or any like her.
And we will not accept a countrywhere innocent people bleed out
on trains while politicians protect the killers.

(19:23):
To the media, shame on you. To the politicians, shame on
you. And to the people listening, we
fight back by refusing to be silent.
So join me, share this stuff, help.
Let's grow the team. We're A-Team.
So stay loud, stay relentless, stay on a freight.

(19:47):
Stay on the freight. Love you guys.