Update: The U.S. Department of Justice has brought a federal murder charge against the suspect.
On Tuesday, Mass Live News published the full video of the murder of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who was stabbed by a black man on a North Carolina train, then bragged about attacking the "white girl."
[Warning: Blood is NOT immediately visible in this video, but it depicts a violent attack. Viewer discretion is advised.]
Images for the history books:
Neck injuries are complex and difficult to assess. From the look of the video, the perp (named by police as Decarlos Brown Jr., a career violent felon) the cut was small enough not to cause immediate loss of consciousness. Neck injuries can involve internal bleeding as well. Even a small cut can cause a drop in blood pressure and lack of oxygen to the brain, which results in death.
UPDATE: Extended footage from another angle shows the extent of blood loss suffered by Zarutska. She collapsed onto the chair, then rolled onto the floor moments after being stabbed.
One man seems to have given his shirt to stem the bleeding as another woman helped.
This is a blurred image:
We will not include the additional footage here, but this is a link to it. Zarutska's blood pooled in front of the doorway as people watched.
In their initial press release before the story got national attention, Charlotte police described the attack this way:
On Friday, August 22, shortly before 10 p.m., officers responded to an Assault with a Deadly Weapon call for service in the 1800 block of Camden Road. Upon arrival, officers discovered one victim with sustained knife wounds. The subject was pronounced on the scene by MEDIC.
At some point between the end of this video and the time the light rail reached the East/West Station at 1800 Camden Road in Charlotte, Zarutska had died.
The sudden attack followed by a slow death highlights the importance of public knowledge about self defense and the grisly realities of knife wounds. In response to the murder, Charlotte's mayor pledged to increase patrols and security systems on public transportation.
While this sounds nice, the best way to stop an attacker with a pocket knife is not a few bureaucratic changes, but allowing citizens to carry self defense weapons that can stop bad guys in the blink of an eye (when the blink of an eye is all you have).
(It is against the rules to carry any kind of weapon on Charlotte's public transportation system.)
A few reactions.
According to FBI Director Kash Patel, the agency is also participating in the investigation.
We'll update you when we have more.
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