“I have seen the horrific video of a beautiful, young Ukrainian refugee, who came to America to escape the vicious War in Ukraine, and was innocently riding the Metro in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she was brutally ambushed by a mentally deranged lunatic. The perpetrator was a well known career criminal, who had been previously arrested and released on CASHLESS BAIL in January, a total of 14 TIMES,” Trump wrote.

“What the hell was he doing riding the train, and walking the streets? Criminals like this need to be LOCKED UP. The blood of this innocent woman can literally be seen dripping from the killer’s knife, and now her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail, including Former Disgraced Governor and ‘Wannabe Senator’ Roy Cooper,” he added.

Trump then decried the media’s perceived hypocrisy regarding the lack of coverage and urged North Carolinians to vote for Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley.

“HE WON’T LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN!” Trump said of Whatley.

Whatley delivered a similar message on Monday in response to Zarutska’s murder.

“It’s pretty simple. A vote for Roy Cooper is a vote for more crime, more violence, more criminals. Cooper and his cohorts in the radical left simply value criminals more than victims, full stop,” Whatley said.

The surveillance footage showed Zarutska, who fled Ukraine in 2022, sitting on the metro in front of Decarlos Brown Jr., a homeless man. Brown suddenly took out a pocket knife and stabbed Zarutska multiple times, killing her. He then paced around the metro car with her blood dripping off his knife.

Brown had an extensive criminal history dating back to 2014, including an armed robbery with a dangerous weapon, for which he spent eight years in jail. Before he murdered Zarutska, he had been arrested and released at least 14 times and was also diagnosed with schizophrenia.

He was released last time, in January, after giving a “written promise” that he would return for his court date, according to court documents reviewed by the National News Desk.

Whatley said that Cooper bears “direct responsibility” for Zarutska’s murder due to a host of criminal justice reform bills he signed into law during his tenure as governor from 2017 to 2025, mostly after the death of George Floyd in 2020. In 2021, he signed off on several bills, including one that implemented recommendations made by the Cooper-created task force on racial equity in criminal justice.

“In 2020, my Democrat opponent, Roy Cooper, tasked a group of extreme leftists with advising him on implementing his executive order, which introduced weak-on-crime policies to North Carolina’s justice system regarding ‘pretrial release, fees, and fines,’” Whatley said. “He told the task force, ‘I look forward to implementing your strong recommendations.’ These policy changes empowered dangerous criminals, such as Decarlos Brown Jr., the murderer of Iryna Zarutska.”

Speaking earlier on Monday, Trump sent his “love and hope” to Zarutska’s family.

“A lunatic just got up and started, it’s right on the tape, not really watchable, because it’s so horrible, but just viciously stabs her. She’s just sitting there. So they’re evil people. We have to be able to handle that. If we don’t handle that, we don’t have a country,” he said.

REPUBLICANS TARGET ROY COOPER OVER ‘WEAK’ CRIME POLICIES DURING GOVERNORSHIP AFTER LIGHT RAIL STABBING

Other figures and accounts linked to Trump echoed the sentiment. The Rapid Response 47 X account harshly condemned Democrat-run cities, holding up Brown as an example.

“Career criminals — like this animal who slaughtered the woman on the train in Charlotte — thrive in Democrat-run cities,” the account said. “The Radical Left has made it impossible for them to be held accountable, so they’re back on the street again and again, free to rape, pillage, and kill.”