The boyfriend of a young Ukrainian refugee stabbed to death by a schizophrenic repeat offender on board a train has hit out at a judge who let a violent suspect with multiple convictions walk free before he allegedly set fire to a woman on public transportation in Chicago.
Stanislav Nikulytsia drew direct parallels between the horrific murder of his girlfriend, Iryna Zarutska, 23, in Charlotte, NC, in August, and the sickening attack on Bethany MaGee on a CTA train in the Windy City on Nov. 17.
“72 prior arrests sounds like a joke. I guess 72 times was not enough to understand who he is,” Nikulytsia said in his Instagram story, sharing a local article about the Chicago attack.
Iryna Zarutska was killed on Aug. 22, 2025. AP“Why they always wait for them to do something like that to start doing something to prevent it,” he added.
Zarutska, who had fled the war in her home country in 2022 to come to the US, was fatally stabbed on board a train while coming home from work.
Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska was murdered on a train in Charlotte. Instagram / @nstanilsavDecarlos Brown, a career criminal with 14 previous arrests, was arrested and charged with her murder shortly afterward.
Brown was freed on cashless bail in January by Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes with a “written promise” to appear at a future court date.
Iryna Zarutska with her boyfriend Stanislav Nikulytsia. Instagram / @nstanilsavOn Tuesday, bodycam footage of officers responding to a welfare check concerning Brown in January was shared by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
In the video, Brown tells officers a “man-made material” is controlling his body, months before he allegedly knifed Zarutska in the neck.
Suspect Decarlos Brown Jr. is accused of fatally stabbing Iryna Zarutska. APNikulytsia, who was described as Zarutska’s “life partner” in her obituary, also shared a link to a video of a conservative influencer accusing “horrible” judges of pushing people toward vigilantism.
“Being soft on crime incentivizes more crime,” the speaker in the video states.
“This is why people want vigilantes. Because when the law does not serve the people, the people must serve as the law. And these horrible judges are making people want to rise up and take justice into their own hands,” the speaker continues.
Iryna Zarutska with her boyfriend “Stas” in an undated photo from social media.
In Chicago, deranged convict Lawrence Reed, 50, allegedly doused MaGee with gasoline and set her ablaze.
He had been released in August in a separate assault case by Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez, despite allegedly slapping a social worker so hard she was knocked out.
Bethany MaGee was lit on fire while on a Chicago train. Facebook/Bethany MaGeeReed was placed under electronic monitoring, which was deemed “wholly insufficient” by prosecutor Jerrilyn Gumila.
But despite that, the judge insisted she couldn’t lock him up.
“I understand your position, but I can’t keep everybody in jail because the state’s attorney wants me to, but I understand and respect your position,” she told Gumila at the time.
Suspect Lawrence Reed is accused of setting Bethany MaGee on fire. Chicago PDMaGee remains in the hospital after suffering burns to 60% of her body.
Reed, who has eight previous felony convictions, appeared in court on Monday, where he yelled “I’m guilty” three times in quick succession, after the judge warned he could receive a life sentence.
The White House has blamed the attacks on Zarutska and MaGee on the Democrats’ soft approach to crime in the cities it controls.
Stanislav Nikulytsia reacted to Bethany MaGee being set on fire while on a train. Instagram / @nstanilsavReed “was walking free because of the radical, dangerous ‘no cash bail’ law proudly signed by Governor JB Pritzker and celebrated by Chicago’s defund-the-police Mayor Brandon Johnson,” the White House said in a statement on Tuesday.
Mayor Johnson described the attack as “a tragic incident” that “should never have happened.”
“An absolute failure of our criminal justice system as well as our mental health institutions,” he said.
As a county commissioner, in 2020, Johnson introduced a nonbinding resolution to redirect funds from police and jails to other public services.
However, he vowed not to cut police spending when running for mayor in 2023.






