The shocking and apparently random fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 22 has inflamed already furious debates over race and crime in U.S. cities. This uproar comes at a particularly perilous moment, with the Trump administration widening its National Guard deployments across the nation and the Supreme Court lifting restrictions that would prevent ICE agents from profiling people based on their ethnicity or what language they speak.

A confluence of factors have turned Zarutska’s death into a flashpoint. The suspect, 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, is a Black man with an extensive criminal record and a diagnosed mental illness. The killing took place on public transit in a major urban center, and was recorded

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