Iryna Zatutska sat on the train for about one minute before she passed away. She had five people around her, not one helping and one even walked away.
On August 22, 23-year-old Ukrainian refuge Iryna Zarutska was stabbed three times on a Charlotte train.
The man responsible, Decarlos Brown, is eligible for the death sentence. He is said to be schizophrenic and said violent things before, he even assaulted his sister Tracey Brown.
Iryna Zarutska was described by her family as a “kindhearted girl” who was the “light” of their family. Her family is heartbroken and devastated she passed this way.
The bystander effect can be a main cause of this. This is the psychological phenomenon when individuals are less likely to help a person in distress when others are present. Also, in a group of people, they feel less obligated to help.
It is outrageous that people can just sit there and watch a young women bleed out and do nothing
People are now scared to use public transportation because of the fear this incident has caused.
People in 2025 care way too much about making a fool of themselves and being judged. You see more violence because people are more judgmental and negative. It is uncommon for people to have original ideas and stray away from the norm. This connects to the bystander effect again because people feel more comfortable staying in what is normalized. 
In a similar case in 1964, Kitty Genovese, was brutally killed outside of her apartment. Despite her screams for help, no one lifted a finger to help, not even to call the police. According to University of North Dakota this sparked research as well about the bystander effect. Also, according to Very Well Mind, another reason people seem not to react is because they see the situation as not big or important because everyone else around them is dulling it down.
High schoolers in 2025 see people dying online daily, most people don’t even bat an eye as we are so merciless to death. As we scroll, death is just a 5 second clip we swipe past. It can go from a cooking video, to murder, to a dancing dog.
I could not imagine the guilt those bystanders now feel knowing she died on that train. Knowing that if people stepped up to help Iryna Zarutska, she could still be alive today just like Kitty Genovese.
We are in an age where we do not care, we are desensitized. We see people die every day on the internet. Stepping up and taking action needs to be normalized.
