CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CNN) – Recorded audio from the 911 calls made after the fatal stabbing of Iryna Zarutska on a light-train in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been released.
The audio calls, obtained by CNN, detail a chaotic and confusing environment as witnesses reported the violent crime, which left 23-year-old Zarutska dead on Aug. 22.
In the first call made to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, the dispatcher can be heard asking the caller to explain exactly what happened.
“I don’t know,” the caller replies. “There’s just a lady right now on the ground with a lot of blood, and everybody’s screaming, and she got stabbed. I don’t know if anybody called 911 yet, people are just freaking out.”
The dispatcher can then be heard confirming that Zarutska was on the train.
“She’s on the train. She’s on the ground right now,” the caller replies. “There are people around her right now. I think they’re holding pressure on this site … She looks young. I don’t know. I don’t think she’s responsive right now.”
In another 911 call made after the fatal stabbing, the caller can be heard sharing details that corroborate what the first caller shared.
“There’s a woman in the train who got stabbed, and she’s bleeding right now,” the second caller says. “There’s a woman stabbed, and she’s bleeding all the way through.”
The Justice Department said Decarlos Brown Jr. sat behind 23-year-old Zarutska on the train before pulling out a knife and stabbing her in the neck.
Brown was arrested and charged by federal authorities with causing death on a mass transportation system, which carries a sentence of up to life in prison or the death penalty.
The family of Zarutska said she was a Ukrainian refugee who had been living in a bomb shelter before coming to the U.S. to escape the war and build a safer life.
The case has become a focal point for the Trump administration, which said Zarutska’s death shows how local leaders, judges, and policies in Democratic-led cities fail to protect residents from violent crime.
These points have been made despite major cities seeing an overall decrease in crime, including violent crime, in recent years.
In a report released by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department in July, one month before Zarutska’s killing, officials said they saw an 8% decrease in crime and a 25% reduction in violent crime through the first half of 2025 when compared to 2024.