Brian Kilmeade apologized for comments he made about homeless individuals during a segment on Fox & Friends last week.
Kilmeade, co-host of Fox & Friends, appeared on Fox & Friends Weekend on Sunday, telling viewers, “In the morning, we were discussing the murder of Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, North Carolina and how to stop these kinds of attacks by homeless, mentally ill assailants, including institutionalizing or jailing such people so they cannot attack again. Now 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.”
On Wednesday, during the discussion of the murder of Zarutska, Kilmeade was speaking with Ainsley Earhardt and Lawrence Jones.
Jones, talking about the mental health crisis, said, “we should have to live in fear while they figure out what is going on right there. Put them in a mental institution. Put them in a jail. You got to figure it out. People having to duck and dive on the trains and the buses, walking through the street, this is one case, but this is happening all across the country. And it is 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 programs. 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 are going to give you, or you decide that you are going to be locked up in jail. That is the way it has to be now.”
Kilmeade then added, “Or involuntary injection or something. Just kill them.”‘
It wasn’t until Saturday that the comments spread across social media, perhaps because the news cycle since then has been dominated by the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
The attack on Zarutska, a refugee from Ukraine, has drawn national attention, as President Donald Trump has pointed to it as an example of the leniency of judges in Democratic-controlled metro areas, given that the suspect had a prior criminal record.
Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., 34, was arrested and faces a state first degree murder charge and a federal charge of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.