Providence Removes Mural Honoring Murdered Ukrainian Refugee After Local Outrage

A mural honoring Iryna Zarutska, the Ukrainian refugee murdered on a North Carolina train, was removed from a Providence, Rhode Island, club after an outcry from locals.

Workers took down the partly finished canvas mural outside The Dark Lady, an LGBTQ+ club in downtown Providence, on Tuesday. They lowered it to the ground, folded it and hauled it away, WJAR-TV reported.

Artist Ian Gaudreau confirmed the removal stemmed from public backlash. "A lot of people voiced their frustrations, and voices were heard, and the work is coming down as a reaction to that," Gaudreau told WJAR-TV on Monday.

Residents and officials objected to the artwork. Mayor Brett Smiley's office told Fox News he wanted it gone, calling the art "divisive and does not represent Providence."

"The murder of the individual depicted in this mural was a devastating tragedy, but the misguided, isolating intent of those funding murals like the one across the county is divisive and does not represent Providence," Smiley said in a statement. He urged support for local artists whose work unites rather than divides the community.

Anthony D'Ellena, chairman of the Narragansett Republican Party, started a petition to save the mural. "This is exactly what Democrats do — they try to erase the memory of their victims and they don't fix their soft-on-crime policies," D'Ellena told WPRI-TV. "They erase the evidence, so no one sees the deadly price of their policies."

He hoped a Rhode Island business would host the mural instead.

The controversy followed pledges to paint Zarutska memorials nationwide. On Sept. 9, 2025, Eoghan McCabe, CEO of AI customer service firm Intercom, posted on X that he would fund $500,000 for 50 murals in her honor. The next day, he said money was raised for 300 murals and they had contacted 800 artists. Elon Musk replied with a $1 million pledge.

Zarutska, 23, fled Ukraine after the Russian invasion. She was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack on Charlotte's Lynx Blue Line light rail last year.

Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, faces federal charges of violence against a railroad carrier and mass transportation system resulting in death, a capital offense.

North Carolina Department of Adult Correction records show Brown had prior convictions for larceny, breaking and entering, and armed robbery.

"Iryna was riding home on the train when a deranged monster, who had been arrested over a dozen times and was released through no-cash bail, stood up and viciously slashed a knife through her neck and body," President Trump said.