More than $1m has been raised by Elon Musk and others to commission ‘sterile’ street art of Iryna Zarutska – whose death has become a rightwing flashpoint
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ike most blocks in Bushwick, New York, Evergreen Street is blanketed in street art and graffiti. But this month, an incongruous new mural appeared, towering over the street corner. Painted on the side of Formosa, a popular Taiwanese dumpling joint, the image of a blond woman stretches across two stories and an entire apartment block, her right eyebrow fractured by bedroom windows.
The mural is one of a number that have been painted across the US depicting Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was killed last year while riding the light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina. Zarutska was traveling home from her job at a local pizzeria when she was stabbed from behind three times.
Her suspected killer, Decarlos Brown Jr, lived with serious mental health issues – his mother told the Charlotte Observer that he believed he was being controlled by a chip in his head. Brown Jr had spent five years in jail on an armed robbery charge, and had been arrested 14 times.
