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Charlotte Mayor’s comments on Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska's murder spark public outrage: 'Villainizing those…'
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles faces backlash for comments regarding the fatal stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska.
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles is under mounting criticism over her comments following the fatal stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on public transport. In her public statement, Lyles referred to the suspect's mental health issues. Surveillance footage released from the August 22 incident showed Zarutska seated in front of her attacker, Decarlos Brown Jr., shortly before the assault.
Charlotte Mayor's remarks
In her statement, Lyles said that Brown Jr. had struggled with mental issues and looked likely that he “suffered a crisis," as reported by Newsweek. She added that mental health issues should be “treated with the same compassion, diligence and commitment as cancer or heart disease,” prompting backlash from social media users who expressed that Lyle's comments diminish Brown Jr.'s accountability.
In a statement reported by WSOC, she said that the first and foremost “thoughts and prayers” are with the victim's family, adding that the incident underscored gaps in the city's mental health safety net. While Lyles did not reveal anything about the suspect's mental health issues, she said that he suffered a long history of mental health illnesses and the incident "should force us to look at what we are doing across our community to address root causes."
The Mayor added, “We will never arrest our way out [of] issues such homelessness and mental health,” adding that we should not be “villainizing those who struggle with their mental health or those who are unhoused.”
The surveillance footage released showed the brutal incident where Zarutska boarded the train and seated herself in front of the suspect. Local media reported that Brown Jr. had a history of mental health problems as well as of arrests and convictions. According to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police, he stabbed the victim three times with a knife, including one to her throat, WBTV reported.
The video further, after the attack, showed Brown Jr. moving through the railcar and removing his red sweatshirt, and blood dripped from it. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian refugee, who had fled Kyiv after Russia's full-scale invasion, slumped in her seat and was pronounced dead on the train.
Also Read: What was Decarlos Brown Jr's motive behind killing Iryna Zarutska? Did he suffer from schizophrenia?
Charlotte Mayor faces criticism for her comments
Lyles's remarks over the incident sparked outrage on social media as one user wrote, “After the Ukrainian woman was murdered, the mayor issued a statement exclusively defending the homeless and mentally ill. No mention of the killer’s 14 arrests and multiple felonies. Our empathy keeps getting used to excuse evil. And it’s literally killing us.”
Another user wrote, “A mayor who excuses throat-slashers is unfit to lead anything, let alone a city. When killers get empathy and victims get silence, government turns into a public safety hazard itself.”
A third user wrote, “She shouldn't be a mayor," while one user bluntly wrote, “RESIGN.”
Brown Jr. was arrested and now faces murder charges, as reported by Newsweek.
