Harmeet K. Dhillon, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, said on Monday that her office is looking at a potential racial motivation behind the brutal, unprovoked murder of a Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Dhillon, speaking to host Benny Johnson, also said she’s looking into why Democrat Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles thanked “media partners” for not airing the full footage of the attack, suggesting there could be an “antitrust” issue and mainstream media coordination.
The 23-year-old victim, Zarutska, who is white, was returning from her job at a local pizzeria when suspect Decarlos Brown Jr., who is black, allegedly stabbed her repeatedly in the neck.
“To draw the conclusion that it was racially targeted, you’d want to see what his prior victims look like,” Dhillon said, when asked if her office was investigating the incident. “I would want to know that evidence before I reach any conclusions, and so we’re certainly looking at this fact pattern.”
“One thing that drew my attention regarding the mayor’s comments regarding this situation is her reference to thanking her media partners for suppressing this video,” she continued. “That leads to a question — we’ve seen other instances of this, of mainstream media coordination. Whether this is an instance, or this nationally is an instance in which mainstream media partners of these left-wing cities are coordinating to suppress significant crime like this from being reported where there may be a racial angle to it.”
“That might be an antitrust issue, it might be other issues as well,” Dhillon said. “Why are we not seeing this disturbing incident and footage on all the news shows at night when we saw the same with respect to George Floyd? That’s a real serious question, and all the people in this department may want to look at that.”
🚨BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Assistant AG for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon announces federal investigations in Charlotte over possible federal civil rights violations for racially biased judgement.
This follows the brutal murder of innocent Iryna Zarutska by a repeat offender who had… pic.twitter.com/FDlWrh5H2s
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 8, 2025
As referenced by Dhillon, Mayor Lyles thanked “our media partners and community members who have chosen not to repost or share the footage out of respect for Iryna’s family.”
The case has sparked outrage, both over the liberal city’s crime policies regarding the suspect, who has a lengthy rap sheet, and the extremely limited mainstream media coverage of the crime. Lyles, specifically, has received much backlash for her statements following the tragedy.
Not only did Charlotte Democrat Mayor Lyles refuse to condemn the lunatic repeat offender who stabbed a woman to death on the train, but she suggested we should actually have compassion for him. pic.twitter.com/8DufqC9YnF
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) September 7, 2025
Related: Fatal Charlotte Stabbing Highlights The Failure Of Racial Equity Policies
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