{"id":2484144,"date":"2025-09-09T12:45:02","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T16:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/charlotte-mayor-scrambles-after-backlash-over-sympathy-with-stabber\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T12:46:02","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T16:46:02","slug":"charlotte-mayor-scrambles-after-backlash-over-sympathy-with-stabber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/charlotte-mayor-scrambles-after-backlash-over-sympathy-with-stabber\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte Mayor Scrambles After Backlash Over Sympathy With Stabber"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcharlotte-mayor-scrambles-after-backlash-over-sympathy-with-stabber%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2484144&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles faced intense public criticism after her comments appeared to sympathize with DeCarlos Brown Jr., the man accused of fatally stabbing 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail. Initially, Lyles referred to the crime as a &#8220;tragic failure by the courts&#8221; but did not take duty for her earlier statements, in which she thanked the media for limiting coverage of the attack and called for &#8220;compassion&#8221; toward violent offenders, portraying the suspect as a mentally ill individual rather than a violent criminal. The stabbing was captured on video, showing Brown stabbing Zarutska multiple times; he has a lengthy criminal record and was charged with first-degree murder. Lyles&#8217; subsequent statements emphasized the need for better mental health treatment and addressing root causes like homelessness, while warning against &#8220;arresting our way out&#8221; of social problems. Critics argue that her reluctance to hold the suspect fully accountable and downplaying the incident contributes to ongoing crime by excusing defendants and <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >undermining public safety measures<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/manhattan-da-reverses-policies-amid-backlash-over-soft-on-crime-approach\/\" title=\"...hattan DA Reverses Policies Amid Backlash Over \u2018Soft On ...\u2019 Approach\">immense public backlash<\/a> over her comments sympathizing with the man who allegedly stabbed 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on a train, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles released another mealy-mouthed statement Monday calling the crime a &ldquo;tragic failure by the courts.&rdquo; But nowhere in the page-long statement did she take responsibility for her previous comments, in which she thanked the media for burying the story and called for &ldquo;compassion&rdquo; for violent offenders.<\/p>\n<p>Disturbing video footage shows Zarutska boarding a light-rail car in Charlotte on Aug. 22. Zarutska sits in front of another passenger who, after a few moments of staring menacingly, pulls out a knife and &ldquo;suddenly stabs Zarutska multiple times,&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wcnc.com\/video\/news\/local\/cats-releases-deadly-stabbing-video\/275-5c6fd382-3aa7-490c-aa49-191f68776e2c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according<\/a> to local outlet WCNC Charlotte. The suspected killer is DeCarlos Brown Jr., who has been charged with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/09\/08\/us\/iryna-zarutska-murder-ukraine-refugee\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">first-degree murder<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles released a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CLTMayor\/status\/1965166868882477567\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">statement<\/a> Monday, calling the deadly stabbing &ldquo;a tragic failure by the courts and magistrates.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Our police officers arrest people only to have them quickly released, which undermines our ability to protect our community and ensure safety,&rdquo; Lyles said in a letter posted on X, calling for a &ldquo;bipartisan solution&rdquo; for &ldquo;those who cannot get treatment for their mental illness and are allowed to be on the streets&rdquo; and repeat offenders. She also discussed &ldquo;ongoing work to address safety and security on our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/amid-french-president-macrons-pension-reform-trade-unions-call-for-more-strikes\/\" title=\"Amid French President Macron\u2019s Pension Reform, Trade Unions Call for More Strikes\">public transport system<\/a>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Video footage of the attack was released Friday, and the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/09\/09\/the-charlotte-stabbing-didnt-fit-the-medias-preferred-narrative-so-they-buried-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">media<\/a> continue to <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/09\/08\/axios-worst-part-about-gruesome-n-c-train-stabbing-is-people-noticing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">downplay<\/a> the incident. Lyles&rsquo; Monday letter came after she released another statement on Saturday <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CLTMayor\/status\/1964305729378275588\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">thanking<\/a> &ldquo;our media partners&rdquo; for not &ldquo;repost[ing] or shar[ing] the footage out of respect for Iryna&rsquo;s family.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The Monday statement does not acknowledge this, however, or comments Lyles released in late August to reporter Joe Bruno, in which she <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JoeBrunoWSOC9\/status\/1960407081896292507?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1960407081896292507%7Ctwgr%5Ecb5c01da1cc97f615ad1664089a23f0f61ebeced%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fabc45.com%2Fnews%2Fnation-world%2Fcharlotte-mayor-faces-criticism-over-comments-on-ukrainian-refugees-fatal-stabbing-vi-lyles-iryna-zarutska-decarlos-brown-jr-public-transport-north-carolina-mental-health-crisis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">painted<\/a> the killer as the real victim.<\/p>\n<p>After a single, throwaway line expressing &ldquo;thoughts and prayers&rdquo; for Zarutska &mdash; who Lyles apparently refused to name &mdash; the August statement went into a soliloquy essentially dismissing the killer&rsquo;s actions not as those of a career criminal, but as someone mentally ill who &ldquo;suffered a crisis.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We must look at the entire situation,&rdquo; Lyles said, according to Bruno. &ldquo;While I do not know the specifics of the man&rsquo;s medical record, what I have come to understand is that he has long struggled with mental health and appears to have suffered a crisis.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>You know who <em>actually<\/em> suffered a crisis? Zarutska. She suffered a violent, preventable death, allegedly at the hands of a man who had a long criminal history. Jail records show Brown was previously convicted of armed robbery, breaking and entering, shoplifting, and felony larceny, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbtv.com\/2025\/08\/29\/accused-charlotte-light-rail-killer-remain-jail-undergo-competency-evaluation-judge-orders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">according<\/a> to local outlet WBTV. He was also <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/09\/08\/us-news\/iryna-zarutska-murder-suspect-was-free-on-cashless-bail-despite-rap-sheet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">arrested<\/a> at least 14 times.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[T]ragic incidents like these should force us to look at what we are doing across our community to address root causes,&rdquo; the statement continued. &ldquo;We will never arrest our way out [of] issues such [as] homelessness and mental health.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Arresting violent criminals <em>does <\/em>prevent more crime. Lyles herself seems to admit this in her most recent statement. If arrests don&rsquo;t work, then why was Brown arrested and charged? Of course, it&rsquo;s to prevent another murder.<\/p>\n<p>Lyles also made sure to emphasize in her statement to Bruno that she was <em>not<\/em> &ldquo;villainizing those who struggle with their mental health or those who are unhoused&rdquo; before she went on to say that mental health is a &ldquo;disease&rdquo; that &ldquo;needs to be treated with the same compassion, diligence and commitment as cancer or heart disease.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>The statement closed after suggesting that the <em>real<\/em> victim wasn&rsquo;t Zarutska, but &ldquo;unhoused&rdquo; individuals who &ldquo;are more frequently the victim of crimes and not the perpetrators.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Although Lyles&rsquo; subsequent <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/CLTMayor\/status\/1964305729378275588\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Saturday statement<\/a> expressed more remorse for Zarutska and her family, she was apparently still &ldquo;thinking hard about what safety really looks like in our city&rdquo; more than two weeks after the attack.<\/p>\n<p>Lyles&rsquo; initial mentality and refusal to take responsibility for her comments<strong> <\/strong>are what fuel more crime: excusing the guilty, minimizing the acts, and spinning the preventable tragedy as just a social justice problem. It took Lyles several days (and pressure from the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/09\/08\/us-news\/charlotte-mayor-vi-lyles-ripped-for-callous-statement-on-murder-of-ukrainian-refugee-iryna-zarutska\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">backlash<\/a>) to barely acknowledge that some people have proved themselves incapable of being functioning members in society and must be removed from the streets.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mayor Lyles deflects blame after backlash over stabbing remarks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2484145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Vi-Lyles-scaled-e1757362440472.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[4265,20464,4602,25920,45525],"class_list":["post-2484144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-backlash","tag-charlotte","tag-mayor","tag-stabber","tag-sympathy"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Vi-Lyles-scaled-e1757362440472.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2484144"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2484149,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2484144\/revisions\/2484149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2484145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2484144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2484144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2484144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}