Vi Lyles was the subject of an angry response after her comments about the mental health of the suspect
The mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, is under fire for her comments about the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian refugee on public transport in which she referred to the suspect’s mental health issues.
Vi Lyles, a Democrat, faced criticism for her statement following the release of surveillance footage which showed Iryna Zarutska on a train on August 22 sitting in front of Decarlos Brown Jr. before she was stabbed.
Newsweek has contacted Lyles‘ office for comment outside of office hours.Why It Matters
Video of the attack on Zarutska went viral. As well as being a tragedy in which a Ukrainian refugee had fled war only to be killed in the U.S., Lyles‘ statement was condemned for relegating concerns for the victim compared with the attacker.
Lyles‘ statement about mental health services which did not mentioning the suspect’s reported criminal background prompted anger as Democrats seek to push back against President Donald Trump’s rhetoric to deploy the National Guard in major, Democrat-run cities.What To Know
Lyles said Brown Jr., who has been arrested and faces a murder charge, had long struggled with mental health issues and looked likely to have „suffered a crisis.“
Her comments that mental health problems must be „treated with the same compassion, diligence and commitment as cancer or heart disease“ angered social media users who said this diminished the suspect’s accountability.
Zarutska, 23, had fled Kyiv following Russia’s full-scale invasion and settled in Charlotte.
Surveillance footage released by the Charlotte Area Transit System on Friday showed the incident from August 22 in which she boarded the train and took a seat in front of Brown Jr.
