Why did no one help Iryna Zarutska?

‘I got that white girl’, muttered Decarlos Brown Jr last month, as he walked down the aisle of a train, a bloody knife still in his hand. Behind him, 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska – a Ukrainian refugee on her way home from work – lay dying on the floor of the carriage.

Brown had stabbed the defenceless Zarutska in the neck entirely unprovoked. Yet what shocks most about this gruesome murder in Charlotte, North Carolina is not just the savagery of the attack, but also the apathy of the victim’s fellow passengers. As the killer moved through the carriage, announcing what he had done, bystanders moved silently out of his way, averted their eyes and quickly gathered their belongings. Not one of them rushed to Zarutska’s side. Not one attempted to save her life.

It might have made a difference. She did not die instantly. After Brown plunged a pocket knife into her three times, CCTV footage shows her curling in on herself and looking up at him in wide-eyed terror. When he moved away, she wept for several seconds into her hands before slumping to the ground. She continued to move for the next minute or so.

Having witnessed all of this, men and women in the seats directly around her did nothing. They either watched on impassively or made for the exit. Perhaps they were experiencing a psychological ‘freeze’ response, whereby individuals become numb in the face of a threat.

Two passengers did eventually move towards Zarutska during her final moments. One rested his hand on the back of her seat and stared. The other appeared to get a phone out to snap a photo. Suffice to say, they were not there to help – they were shameless gawpers who couldn’t even comfort a young woman as she died.

We are told ours is an age of empathy. The response of passengers to Zarutska as she was attacked and then lay dying suggests otherwise. Their courage shrivelled, they proceeded to either ignore her or engage in rubbernecking. It took a whole two minutes before a young man attempted to staunch her bleeding with his shirt. By this time, it was too late. It is possible that the last human touch this young woman felt was the hand that drove the blade into her.

The horrific murder of Zarutska brings to mind that of the British soldier, Lee Rigby. In 2013, Rigby was hacked to death in the street in broad daylight by Islamist terrorists who proceeded to brag about what they had done in front of several passers-by. Over 60 people gathered to spectate and film the incident. ‘They just wanted to watch and record the unhappiness of others’, said Ingrid Loyau-Kennett – a middle-aged mother-of-two, and the only person to confront the killers.

Similarly, a dozen or so strangers must have witnessed Zarutska’s death. They were followed by the millions more who have looked at the footage and snapshots circulated online.

This young woman deserved more than the indignity of having a phone shoved in her face as she lay curled up in pain. It is a profoundly sick society in which the urge to document our fellow human beings at their most terror-stricken should come before offering even the smallest gesture of support.

In Iryna Zarutska’s final moments, she was surrounded by people and comforted by no one.

Georgina Mumford is a spiked intern.