Iryna Zarutska was a 23-year-old Ukrainian immigrant brutally stabbed to death on a North Carolina light rail train. Her murder, caught on security camera, was tragic, public, and traumatic.

Now, rapper DaBaby has recreated that violent moment in a music video — without consent from her family, and without warning to viewers who may be reliving the trauma of that horrific day.

In the video for his song “Save Me,” DaBaby reimagines the attack with himself as a bystander who intervenes to stop the killing. But Iryna didn’t get saved. She died. And her family is left to grieve while millions watch a fictionalized version of her last moments — turned into entertainment.

This isn’t art that honors a victim. It’s exploitation.

We call on DaBaby and the record label to remove the video immediately and issue a public apology to Iryna Zarutska’s family.

There are ethical ways to raise awareness about violence. But this wasn’t a documentary. It wasn’t created in collaboration with those who knew Iryna. And it didn’t tell her story — it erased her reality in favor of a fictional ending that centers the artist, not the victim.

A young woman lost her life. She was someone’s daughter, someone’s friend. Her story deserves respect — not reenactment.

No family should have to watch a loved one’s final moments become content.

If DaBaby wanted to raise awareness about violence on public transportation, he could have done it without dramatizing a real killing. He could have used his platform to support Iryna’s community, not retraumatize it.

This video crossed a moral line. Let’s show that there’s still a public standard for decency — and that we honor victims not by dramatizing their deaths, but by demanding justice and remembering them with dignity.

Sign this petition to demand the removal of DaBaby’s video. Stand with Iryna’s family.