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.
👉 Follow the show right here on Spotify, drop a 5-star rating, and keep listening only on Spotify — the place where this conversation stays alive.
00:00:00
A young woman is butchered on a train and his first instinct is
00:00:02
to scold the public for reacting the wrong way.
00:00:06
No sympathy, no anger at the system that kept a violent man
00:00:09
free. Just magus politicizing this.
00:00:13
News flash Brian. Wanting justice is not
00:00:17
political. Wanting to lock up murderers
00:00:20
isn't a MAGA talking point. It's basic survival.
00:00:25
Hey guys, you've probably seen the brutal clip that's been
00:00:30
everywhere on social media. Although there's tragedy after
00:00:34
tragedy, it seems every day, every other day.
00:00:37
So you don't know which one I'm talking about for this show.
00:00:42
This is one that the media outlets, the big ones, avoided
00:00:45
like it was contagious. They stayed quiet until they had
00:00:49
no choice. So I want to walk through what
00:00:52
really happened and all the red flags involved just popped up in
00:00:59
the aftermath. Her name was Irena Zarutzka.
00:01:07
She was 23 years old and she was Ukrainian.
00:01:10
She came here legally with her family in 2022 after Russia
00:01:16
invaded. She fled war, literal bombs
00:01:20
falling on her city. She thought America would be
00:01:24
safe. She got a job at a pizza shop.
00:01:27
She worked hard. She loved animals.
00:01:28
She wanted to build a normal life.
00:01:31
But late last month, yes, it was that long ago, and it's just now
00:01:36
being spread in Charlotte, NC. She got on a train, and she sat
00:01:42
down in front of a man named De Carlos Brown Junior, a career
00:01:47
criminal, 14 prior arrests, schizophrenic.
00:01:52
He's out roaming the streets like nothing's wrong.
00:01:55
What happened next is one of the most horrifying things that
00:01:59
you'll ever see. I'm going to play this
00:02:02
surveillance clip if you haven't seen it yet.
00:02:06
Warning, it's very graphic, The one I'm playing.
00:02:09
He stops before the actual the actual stabbing.
00:02:13
To be blunt, if you have seen it, I'm sorry to put it in front
00:02:15
of you again. This is what the media is trying
00:02:18
to bury and it deserves to be seen.
00:02:21
So roll this. This pulls it right out.
00:02:53
Footage that came out after that showed him stabbing her in the
00:02:55
chest three times. She was stunned.
00:02:58
She almost felt like I think she just thought she hit her.
00:03:02
She looked down and saw what had happened and slowly slid off of
00:03:08
the train chair and onto the ground as she bled out and die.
00:03:13
Other angles they show her in shock, they show her crying,
00:03:16
they show end up showing bleeding out.
00:03:18
This is the one I chose because it's vulgar.
00:03:20
But the part that makes you sick all over again is that there
00:03:23
were four other passengers in that car.
00:03:26
They sat there, they did nothing.
00:03:28
They just let her die. Some of them even started to
00:03:32
walk away. And if that's not enough to turn
00:03:35
your stomach, listen to this. As the killer walks off, knife
00:03:40
dripping with actual blood, Brown reportedly takes off his
00:03:44
sweatshirt and says, and I quote, I got that white girl.
00:03:49
I got her. That's not me speculating.
00:03:52
That's what multiple reports say was caught on video by
00:03:55
witnesses. You tell me, what does that
00:03:59
sound like? Because if that's not a hate
00:04:01
crime, the word has no meaning anymore.
00:04:05
This happened in late August, but you didn't hear about it
00:04:08
until a week later. At least when the surveillance
00:04:11
video leaked and social media forced the issue, the major
00:04:16
outlets ignored it until they couldn't anymore.
00:04:20
The the usual CNNMSNBC, the whole lot of them.
00:04:25
Why? Because it doesn't fit any of
00:04:28
the narratives. Wrong color victim, wrong color
00:04:31
attacker, wrong weapon. It was a knife so they can't use
00:04:35
it for their gun control lectures.
00:04:37
And the wrong kind of immigrant. She was actually here legally so
00:04:40
media just let it vanish, pretend it didn't happen.
00:04:45
And that's exactly why people don't trust the media anymore.
00:04:50
They bury stories like this when the truth hurts their politics.
00:04:55
So here's what we're going to do.
00:04:56
We're going to unpack the horror of this hypocrisy, the political
00:05:00
spin, and the cowardice of the leaders who refused to face the
00:05:03
reality of what's happening in their cities.
00:05:07
This is Stay in the Fray podcast.
00:05:09
It is September the 10th, 2025. Let's roll.
00:05:16
So the country, the world really just watched a young woman get
00:05:19
butchered on a train. You'd expect the mayor of the
00:05:22
city that it happened and to come out swinging, demanding
00:05:25
justice, vowing to make the city safe.
00:05:29
None so much. This is Charlotte, and Mayor Vai
00:05:32
Lyles gave us one of the weakest, most tone deaf
00:05:36
responses I've ever seen. Allow me to inform you of what
00:05:41
Vai said. This is a tragic situation that
00:05:45
sheds light on problems with society's safety Nets related to
00:05:49
mental health care and the systems that should be in place.
00:05:52
OK. Oh good.
00:05:54
She's already softening the killer into a victim.
00:05:58
He didn't commit murder. No, he just fell through a
00:06:00
safety net. Poor guy.
00:06:02
She emphasized that the suspect has long struggle with mental
00:06:06
health and appears to have suffered a crisis.
00:06:11
You think a fucking crisis, lady, A crisis is a panic attack
00:06:17
at work. This man pulled a knife and
00:06:19
butchered someone on a train. Call it what it is, she
00:06:25
continues. Mental health problems must be
00:06:27
treated with the same compassion, diligence and
00:06:30
commitment as cancer or heart disease.
00:06:35
So now we're comparing cold blooded murder to cancer
00:06:38
patients? This is unreal.
00:06:43
Do you hear that stabbing innocent people is just simply
00:06:45
another diagnosis to treat I want, she said.
00:06:50
I want to be clear that I'm not villainizing those who struggle
00:06:54
with mental health or those who are unhoused.
00:06:58
Well, of course not. God forbid we villainize the guy
00:07:01
dripping in blood saying I got that white girl.
00:07:05
Heaven forbid we hurt his feelings.
00:07:07
It's not about those other people right now, it's about
00:07:10
this person and even more those who are unhoused.
00:07:15
Homeless are more frequently the victim of crimes and not the
00:07:19
perpetrators. So it's OK because usually the
00:07:25
unhoused are the victims. There is 0 point in saying this
00:07:31
at this time. Tell me the next time a homeless
00:07:34
man gets butchered by an innocent woman on a train, I'll
00:07:38
condemn that too. I've never heard of that
00:07:42
happening ever. But hey, I'll bet CNN would
00:07:48
cover that one wall to wall for you.
00:07:52
She says we will never arrest our way out of issues such as
00:07:56
homelessness and mental health. That's great.
00:08:00
The translation. Just just let them roam on the
00:08:02
streets until they kill someone. That's her plan.
00:08:06
What in the actual fuck? This is supposed to be
00:08:10
leadership. There is more sympathy for the
00:08:13
killer than the victim. This is a pattern.
00:08:18
That isn't compassion, it's cowardice.
00:08:21
It's disgusting and a much backlash for this woke, cowardly
00:08:26
response. The mayor released a more
00:08:30
appropriate response a little later on.
00:08:34
She said. As I reflect on the tragic
00:08:36
murder of Irena Zarutzka, my heart continues to go out for
00:08:40
her family. Well, finally, it took the
00:08:43
Internet ripping you apart to get even here.
00:08:46
She goes on to call it a tragic failure by the courts and the
00:08:49
magistrates. Well, no shit.
00:08:51
Brown had 14 arrests and was still free.
00:08:54
Just walking around. It took you 3 days.
00:08:58
That's how long it was in between to say what everyone
00:09:01
else said immediately. She goes on our police arrest
00:09:05
people only to see them released, which undermines
00:09:07
safety. And thanks for noticing.
00:09:11
You run the city, do something about that.
00:09:16
She says we need a bipartisan solution to repeat offenders.
00:09:19
What the fuck does bipartisan solution mean?
00:09:22
What does this have to do with anything?
00:09:23
Right now the translation is I'm still more worried about my
00:09:26
politics than people bleeding out on my trains.
00:09:31
She announced that there were going to be more security
00:09:33
patrols, more guards, redeployed staff.
00:09:36
Those are great ideas. Finally, it should have been
00:09:38
your first words, not your last. When your first instinct after a
00:09:44
murder is to protect the image of the criminal instead of the
00:09:47
life of the victim, you shouldn't be in office.
00:09:51
That simple. Vile Isle showed us exactly
00:09:53
where her priorities are. And spoiled alert they're not
00:09:56
with the innocent people of Charlotte.
00:09:59
And now we get to CNN, because of course they had to step in
00:10:03
and make this whole thing worse. Enter Brian Stelter, the guy who
00:10:09
thinks his job is scolding America for noticing reality.
00:10:13
Let's hear what he had to say. Story has trickled up from so
00:10:17
from local news to social media and now to the president's
00:10:21
attention. And it's being used, as you
00:10:22
said, Brianna, as a political symbol with MAGA media calling
00:10:25
for more forceful punishments and more incarceration.
00:10:29
I have to say some of the replies to Musk, some of the
00:10:31
comments around this story are baldly racist stocking fear of
00:10:35
African Americans because this man attacked a white woman.
00:10:39
The open racism on sites like X today, it's eye popping, but
00:10:43
there are also legitimate questions about this so-called
00:10:45
career criminal, someone who had been a repeat offender.
00:10:48
And those questions, I hope they're not lost amid all of the
00:10:51
cesspool kind of comments on social media.
00:10:55
Oh, man, I wouldn't use the word baldly at all, Stelter.
00:11:00
Let's take this piece by piece. Stelter says the story went from
00:11:03
local news to social media to the president's attention.
00:11:06
Yeah, Brian, because you didn't cover it.
00:11:09
That's how news works. People see it, they share it,
00:11:11
and shame networks like yours into finally pretending to care.
00:11:15
You're welcome. He said it's being used as a
00:11:18
political symbol. MAGA is calling for more
00:11:20
forceful punishment and incarceration.
00:11:23
Oh, no, the horror. People want criminals punished.
00:11:27
Imagine that. According to Stelter, it's now a
00:11:30
partisan issue not to want your daughter stabbed on a fucking
00:11:33
train. It's unreal, Stelter says some
00:11:39
of the comments probably racist. You mean the killer walking out
00:11:46
with the blood on his knife saying I got that white girl?
00:11:50
Is that the racism that you mean, Brian, or is there only
00:11:53
racism when it doesn't target white people?
00:11:56
That's the message that you're sending here, just in case you
00:11:59
didn't know, he said. We need to be questioning the
00:12:02
career criminal aspect. I hope it doesn't get lost in
00:12:05
social media. Lost in social media?
00:12:09
But that's the only reason anyone's even talking about it's
00:12:12
you clowns ignored it. Social media is the only place
00:12:15
that news breaks anymore. You're just mad it makes you
00:12:20
look irrelevant, which you are. Ryan Stelter is the human
00:12:24
embodiment of media gaslighting. A young woman is butchered on a
00:12:28
train and his first instinct is to scold the public for reacting
00:12:31
the wrong way. No sympathy, no anger at the
00:12:34
system that kept the Violet man free.
00:12:37
Just magus politicizing this News flash Brian.
00:12:42
Wanting justice is not political.
00:12:45
Wanting to lock up murderers isn't a MAGA talking point.
00:12:49
It's basic survival. You're so blinded by Trump
00:12:53
Derangement Syndrome, you and your your whole fucking channel,
00:12:56
you can't even say, hey, maybe stabbing refugees on trains is
00:12:59
bad. Instead, you frame the outrage
00:13:04
as what's dangerous. You attack the people who are
00:13:08
demanding safety. You side with the chaos because
00:13:12
that's what the narrative demands.
00:13:15
The left wonders why America has tuned you out.
00:13:21
These people do not report the news anymore.
00:13:23
They protect criminals, they scold the public, and they spend
00:13:26
tragedy into lectures. Stelter doesn't belong on a news
00:13:30
channel. He belongs in a parody sketch.
00:13:32
But sadly, the joke's on us because his shtick is real life.
00:13:39
I want to talk about the hypocrisy.
00:13:41
This is a big deal. This story exposes it like
00:13:45
nothing else. Hypocrisy of exposing is one of
00:13:49
the main things I do here. Do you remember Daniel Penny and
00:13:53
Jordan Neely on the train? How about Derek Chauvin and
00:13:57
George Floyd? Obviously those names were
00:14:00
shoved down America's throat for months.
00:14:03
Statues, murals, silence at sports games, media panels,
00:14:07
crying every night. You couldn't escape it.
00:14:11
And then here comes Irena Zarutzka, a 23 year old refugee
00:14:16
working in a pizza shift. No criminal record, no history
00:14:20
of violence, Just a hard working young woman riding the train
00:14:23
home. She gets butchered by a career
00:14:27
criminal with a knife. And the same media outlets that
00:14:31
gave you wall to wall George Floyd coverage, they go radio
00:14:35
silent. A George Floyd career criminal
00:14:39
who once robbed a pregnant woman at knifepoint.
00:14:43
Multiple prior arrests. Jordan Neely threatening
00:14:48
passengers on a subway saying he was going to kill someone, he
00:14:52
was ready to die and he had 40 something prior arrests.
00:14:59
These people were painted as martyrs, Saints, civil rights
00:15:03
icons. It was disgusting.
00:15:06
Meanwhile, Irena Zarutzka, innocent, hard working law
00:15:10
abiding, doesn't even get a headline until social media
00:15:13
forces it. Definitely no murals.
00:15:16
I didn't hear any silence before any kickoffs this last weekend.
00:15:20
No speeches in Congress. Why?
00:15:23
Because she doesn't check any of their boxes.
00:15:26
I'll break it down real quick. How about race?
00:15:29
She's the wrong color. White victim doesn't fit the
00:15:31
script. How about the attacker?
00:15:33
Wrong color again, Can't admit that.
00:15:35
Crime stats. They don't want you to see the
00:15:40
weapon. That's a knife.
00:15:42
That's not a gun. Wait, they can't scream ban the
00:15:45
AR Fifteens? She was an immigrant.
00:15:48
Here's the kicker, she was a legal immigrant, A refugee, The
00:15:53
very thing they claim to care about.
00:15:55
I suppose she needed to be an illegal immigrant to be under
00:15:59
their radar. If they highlight this event,
00:16:06
this tragedy, this horror, it pits their protected groups
00:16:11
against each other. So they bury it.
00:16:14
Tell me this, if a white guy walked up and stabbed a black
00:16:18
woman on that train, do you think we'd even be talking about
00:16:22
anything else? You'd have riots in the streets.
00:16:25
Al Sharpton booking his plane ticket before the blood was even
00:16:28
dry. But when it's flipped, silence,
00:16:33
blackout. And you can't deny it.
00:16:38
Because for the media, it's never about the victim.
00:16:40
It's about the narrative. And if your tragedy doesn't help
00:16:43
the agenda, you don't exist. In their eyes, Irena should be a
00:16:48
household name, should be the face of vigils, of outrage, of
00:16:53
demands for safety. Instead, she's just another
00:16:56
casualty and a system that values spin over lives.
00:17:02
That's the hypocrisy and we're sick of it.
00:17:07
So here we are, another young woman dead, another career
00:17:10
criminal roaming the streets when he should have been locked
00:17:13
up years ago. Another mayor giving sympathy
00:17:16
speeches for the killers, another CNN anchor scolding you
00:17:20
for being upset, and another example of why the majority of
00:17:25
this country is furious. They told us George Floyd was a
00:17:31
St. They told us Jordan Neely just
00:17:34
had some issues. They told us that criminals were
00:17:36
victims and victims were disposable.
00:17:39
But when Irena Zarutzka, legal immigrant, refugee, hard working
00:17:44
young woman, was slaughtered on a train, they shrugged and
00:17:48
looked the other way. Because admitting the truth
00:17:51
would blow up the entire narrative of who the good guys
00:17:54
are and who the bad guys are. The left loves to call
00:17:58
themselves the party of tolerance, compassion and love.
00:18:03
Tolerance for killers, compassion for criminals.
00:18:07
Love for chaos, for the actual innocent, for the refugee who
00:18:12
trusted America to be safer than a war-torn Ukraine.
00:18:17
Nothing. They don't care.
00:18:21
If this is what tolerance looks like, they can keep it.
00:18:24
If this is love, I want no part of it.
00:18:27
Crime is out of control. Soft on crime policies have
00:18:31
failed. Bail reform has failed.
00:18:35
Liberal mayors and city councils have failed.
00:18:40
And every time something like this happens, they point fingers
00:18:43
at Trump or MAGA instead of admitting that their own
00:18:47
disaster. That's why their approval
00:18:50
ratings are tanking. That's why people are waking up.
00:18:55
That's why they're fading. And it's only going to get worse
00:18:58
for them. This podcast is called Stay in
00:19:02
the Fray for a reason. Because this is the fight.
00:19:06
This is the battleground. And the truth is simple.
00:19:09
We will not stop talking about Irena Zarutzka.
00:19:12
We will not let her name be buried or any like her.
00:19:16
And we will not accept a country where innocent people bleed out
00:19:19
on trains while politicians protect the killers.
00:19:23
To the media, shame on you. To the politicians, shame on
00:19:28
you. And to the people listening, we
00:19:32
fight back by refusing to be silent.
00:19:34
So join me, share this stuff, help.
00:19:38
Let's grow the team. We're A-Team.
00:19:41
So stay loud, stay relentless, stay on a freight.
00:19:47
Stay on the freight. Love you guys.