"Fox and Friends" host Brian Kilmeade issued an on-air apology Sunday, four days after making controversial comments about the homicide of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska.
Officials charged Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, with causing Zarutska’s death. Brown had previously been charged with first-degree murder by local authorities in Charlotte after allegedly pulling out a knife and killing Zarutska on the city’s light rail in an apparently random attack captured on video.
The incident, which occurred Aug. 22, gained national attention amid questions about why Brown was free despite having 14 prior criminal cases.
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On Wednesday, Kilmeade commented on remarks by co-host Lawrence Jones.
"It's not our job -- we shouldn't have to live in fear while they figure out what is going on right there," Jones said. "Put him in a mental institution, put him in a jail and you guys figure it out. People having to duck and dive on the trains and the buses, walk through the street, this is one case, but this is happening all across the country, and it's not a money issue. They have given billions of dollars to mental health and the homeless population. A lot of them don't want to take the program, a lot of them don't want to get the help that is necessary. You can't give them a choice. Either you take the resources that we're going to give you or you decide that you are going to be locked up in jail. That's the way it has to be now."
"Or involuntary lethal injection or something. Just kill them," Kilmeade said, adding, "We aren't voting for the right people."
After clips of the exchange went viral, Kilmeade apologized Sunday during Fox and Friends Weekend.
"We were discussing the murder of Iryna Zarutska and how to stop these kinds of attacks by homeless mentally ill assailants, including institutionalizing or jailing such people so they don't attack again. During that discussion, I wrongly said they should get lethal injections. I apologize for that extremely callous remark. I am obviously aware that not all mentally ill homeless people act as the perpetrator did in North Carolina and that so many homeless people deserve our empathy and compassion."
Brown's family told ABC News that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and became increasingly concerned for her safety. She said that she had to go to court to get a mental hospital to accept Brown, but that hospital released him after 14 days.
Brown's mother, Michelle Dewitt, added to ABC News that she dropped her son off at a homeless shelter.
