Democrats Confused on who the Victim Actually was in Fatal Stabbing

POLITICS • Sep 08, 2025 • DailyDefamer.com Copied!
Iryna Zarutska was murdered by Decarlos Brown Jr. on August 22nd, 2025. She was just 23 years old.
Iryna Zarutska, a refugee from Ukraine whom the media hasn't reported on, was murdered by Decarlos Brown Jr on August 22nd, 2025. She was just 23 years old.

Charlotte, NC—In surveillance footage just released from the Charlotte Area Transit System from an event that occurred on Friday, August 22nd, we see in gruesome detail the stabbing of a 23-year old woman, Iryna Zarutska, who was a refugee from Ukraine. In the footage, we see her murderer looking conflicted or anxious, almost talking to himself, while sitting on the train. Moments later, footage shows Zarutska board the train. She sits in front of Brown, and continues to type on her cell phone. There was no interaction between the two. They didn’t even look at each other. After another moment, Brown unfolds a pocket knife, stands up, pulls back, and stabs her in the neck.

Decarlos Brown Jr. standing up on a Charlotte train moments before fatally stabbing Iryna Zarutska
Decarlos Brown Jr. standing up on a Charlotte train moments before fatally stabbing Iryna Zarutska, who hadn't interacted with him at all.

Brown quickly walks off, leaving a trail of blood. He removed his hoodie, and waited for the train to come to the station before exiting as if nothing happened. Passengers on scene tried to help as soon as they realized what had happened, but it was too late.

In the weeks following, there hasn’t been much reporting on this story. At publishing time, only the NY Post had reported it. That comes as no surprise, as Democrats and mainstream news outlets are torn over who the victim of the stabbing actually is. Generally, their choice is easy—if the assailant is a minority, they are the victim. However in this case, the white victim was a refugee from Ukraine. That caused quite a conundrum.

“Democrats having a real headache tomorrow. Do they kneel for the murderer, or do they put on their Ukraine pin,” one user said on YouTube.

In the video, Zarutska could be seen still wearing the uniform from her employer, Zepeddie’s Pizza, a local restaurant in Charlotte. Unlike any Democrat politician that could’ve protected her, the pizzerria posted a beautiful statement in the wake of her death on their Instagram page.

Archived post from Zepeddie's Pizzerria

The sad truth is that this was completely avoidable. The long time criminal, Brown, 34, shouldn’t have been there that night. He was out of jail on bond—if you could call it that since it amounted to what was essentially just a guy saying “trust me.” Magistrate Teresa Stokes, who has since deleted all of her professional social media, let Brown out earlier this year on zero dollars and a written promise to appear.

“Guess where he appeared,” one North Carolina resident asked. “Right behind a poor young girl with a knife,” he answered.

In fact, this wasn’t the first, third, or tenth time the state had a chance to make sure this deranged criminal was off the streets. Brown was currently homeless after being arrested for the fourteenth time. He spent five years in prison for an armed robbery in 2014. Just five months after release, he was arrested once again for assaulting his own sister in her own home in Charlotte.

Brown’s mother, who wishes to remain nameless, said her son has had mental issues for years. Since most of the mental institutions have been shuttered or defunded, the only thing she could do was get him evaluated. His behavior became increasingly aggressive and so she got an order from the court to involuntarily commit him. They diagnosed him with schizophrenia, and discharged him into his mother’s care. As he continued to get more aggressive, her only option—as both the mental health system and courts failed her—was to kick Brown out of her house.

Normal people wonder, at this point, why would we release someone who’s schizophrenic into society who’s already committed over ten crimes against the people of North Carolina? But Judge Roy Wiggins is not a normal man. When Brown’s own public defender made a motion questioning Brown’s ability to proceed in the court case, Judge Wiggins ordered a forensic evaluation, but still refused to take Brown into custody.

“We aren’t sure that Brown is able to proceed in his case due to mental issues, but that shouldn’t bar him from interacting with polite society,” Wiggins said in July, just weeks before Brown would murder Zarutska.

Brown was before Magistrate Stokes and Judge Wiggins because he had called 911 from Novant Health, claiming that someone gave him a substance that controlled him, according to court records. Police charged him with misusing the 911 system and both of them chose to let Brown go free, even though he was clearly unstable.

In an even crazier twist, we found out, thanks to cached content on Google, that Magistrate Stokes is co-owner/director of Pinnacle Recovery Services, which bills itself as “providing safe, sustainable recovery housing and supportive services for individuals with substance abuse and mental health disorders.” It wouldn’t be beyond the pale to assume that someone who runs an organization like that would understand that we can’t just release schizophrenics into society, but she chose to do so anyway.

All along the way, there were numerous times that Brown could’ve been stopped, and maybe even helped. In the case with his sister’s assault, the judge told us at the time, “Look, we can’t judge this guy. We don’t know what his situation was growing up.” When we pushed back and explained that his sister grew up in the same household he said, “yes, but she is a productive member of society so clearly she has privileges that her brother doesn’t.”

Kimberly Best, a retired judge who once presided over North Carolina’s mental health court gave the best explanation possible when speaking of the mental health system. “It’s broken, and we’ve known that for a long time.” She echoed what families across the nation have said—the mental health system can only accommodate a select few, mainly those who commit serious offenses.

“Unfortunately, the only way to get your loved ones help in the greatest country in the world is to make sure they violently attack someone,” noted a mental health professional who chose to remain anonymous. “If you’re not stabbing, you’re on the bottom of the list.”

A GoFundMe had been set up for Brown’s legal defenses, but for once the site actually took down a support page for an attacker.

A screenshot of the GoFundMe set up for Decarlos Brown Jr., who murdered a young woman without provocation.
Yet another GoFundMe set up for a violent attacker.

“GoFundMe's Terms of Service explicitly prohibit fundraisers that raise money for the legal defense of anyone formally charged with an alleged violent crime," a GoFundMe spokesperson said. "Consistent with this long-standing policy, the fundraisers have been removed from the platform, and the donors who contributed have been fully refunded.”

Despite this, Jacob Blake, who attempted to stab police when they came to arrest him for sexual assault, still has an active GoFundMe that has raised $2.35M. There’s also a fund for noted domestic abuser and human trafficker, Kilmar Ábrego García, which has raised $10K. These campaigns were still active at publishing time, but it is the policy of Daily Defamer to not link to fundraising campaigns for outright criminals.

Our hearts go out to the family of Iryna Zabrutska. A GoFundMe has been set up to help her family here. We’d like to link a GiveSendGo instead, because they don’t play political games, but a campaign has not been set up there at the time of publishing.

Brosé Sanchez

America First voice from Florida. Shares bold takes on culture, hypocrisy & history. Pronouns are: I, you, he/she, we, you, they. You should've learned that in grade school.

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