And on the 17th day, the legacy media finally got around to reporting the brutal murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on board a Charlotte light rail. Rather than simply reporting the inconvenient story straight up, though, NBC saw fit to engage in a little Trumpwashing.
Watch the report in its entirety, as aired on NBC Nightly News on Monday, September 8th, 2025:
TOM LLAMAS: Back here at home, new surveillance footage of a shocking attack on a young woman riding public transit. Jesse Kirsch has details on the suspect and why President Trump is commenting on the attack. And a warning, you may find some of these images disturbing.
JESSE KIRSCH: This is the moment Iryna Zarutska boarded a late-night train in Charlotte, North Carolina. Video released by authorities shows her in her pizzeria work uniform as she scrolls on her phone. Police say less than five minutes after Zyrutska sat down, the man behind her pulled a knife from his pocket, unfolded the blade and struck at the 23-year-old woman three times, stabbing her in the throat. Passengers on the train later appearing to help her. Investigators say the suspect is 34-year-old DeCarlos Brown Jr., who is now charged with murder. According to an obituary, she was Ukrainian. A fundraising page said she recently came to the U.S. seeking safety from the war and hoping for a new beginning. The August 22nd attack sending a chill through the Queen City.
RAIL PASSENGER: I was shocked to hear that. I was like, really? Because I just r- I just rode it like hours before.
KIRSCH: Today, President Trump weighing in on the attack.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, they’re evil people. We have to be able to handle that. If we don't handle that, we don't have a country.
KIRSCH: The president blaming Democrats for Zarutska’s death, pointing to the suspect’s criminal history. Police and court records show Brown was arrested more than a dozen times including for assault. North Carolina's Democratic governor says the state needs more police officers and is calling on lawmakers to pass legislation which the governor believes will, quote: “stop these horrific crimes and hold violent criminals accountable.” Tom.
LLAMAS: All right. Jesse Kirsch for us.
The Trumpwashing tease was set early on, in Tom Llamas’s introduction to the report, which framed the story. Correspondent Jesse Kirsch then went into his report, which narrated the horrendous details of the crime and made note of the defendant’s criminal record. It was at this point that Kirsch reacted to President Donald Trump weighing in on cashless bail. As if that were scandalous. Kirsch then closes out the report with a quote from North Carolina Governor Josh Stein, making sure to work Stein’s partisan ID into the close.
This is a typical tactic of legacy media when forced into reporting on an inconvenient story they previously omitted. The horrible thing that happened takes a back seat to whatever Trump said in reaction.
As was the case with the stories of Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, Rachel Morin, and so many others, the legacies held off on reporting this horrific story until an explosive element made it unavoidable. In the aforementioned cases, the explosive element is the illegal immigrant status of the perpetrators. In the Zarutska murder, the explosive element is the video of the killing.
ABC ran a cleaner report for World News Tonight, with none of the bolstering of Gov. Stein as seen on NBC. This is much more than can be said for the CBS Evening News, which omitted the story altogether after covering it in the morning.
There were a great deal of inanities that the legacy media stuffed their newscasts with- even some local crime stories, while avoiding this terrible story for two and a half weeks. Will there be spontaneous reporting on the local failures that led to this terrible outcome And will there be an effort to report these without pointing to some statement of Trump’s? Only time will tell.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on ABC World News Tonight on Monday, September 8th, 2025:
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT
9/8/25
6:39 PM
DAVID MUIR: Now, to the horrific attack making national headlines. ABC News now obtaining chilling images, police say the suspect sitting behind an unsuspecting passenger in a train in North Carolina, then rising up and attacking her. We will not show the video of the attack itself, but we warn you, this is disturbing. Here's Stephanie Ramos.
STEPHANIE RAMOS: Tonight, growing outrage after a gruesome random attack on a commuter train in Charlotte. The newly released surveillance video begins like an ordinary night. Iryna Zarutska getting on the train, still wearing the hat and t-shirt from the restaurant where she just finished her shift. Seated behind her, in the red sweatshirt, is DeCarlos Brown Jr. About 4 1/2 minutes later, Brown rises from his seat and unprovoked, the video shows him stab her multiple times. Brown walking through the car with blood dripping behind him as a crowd of people rush to tend to Zarutska, who was declared dead at the scene. Officers arresting Brown as he stepped off the train. The 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska was born in Kyiv. She fled the war in Ukraine with her family in 2022, who write in her obituary that she was “a gifted and passionate artist,” and loved animals. DeCarlos Brown is a repeat offender with a violent history including armed robbery, with a misdemeanor case pending at the time of the attack. He's now facing first degree murder. The incident drawing national attention and outrage from President Trump, who spoke against cashless bail.
DONALD TRUMP: 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 killing again.
RAMOS: David, the suspect also has a history of mental health issues. A judge has ordered he be evaluated at a hospital. The suspect is due in court later this month. David.
MUIR: Stephanie Ramos tonight. Steph, thank you.
