(LifeSiteNews) — On August 10, “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade suggested that mentally ill homeless people should be killed, against their wills, by lethal injection.
The context was an emotionally charged discussion about the brutal murder on August 22 of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed to death on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina. The killer was the homeless, mentally ill, repeat offender Decarlos Brown Jr., who, after knifing the young woman repeatedly, walked through the train trailing blood from the knife muttering, “I got that white girl.”
Video of her killing circulated almost constantly on social media; I couldn’t scan my X feed for days without seeing various clips of Zarutska being attacked; her wide, fearful eyes; her slumping to the side, and then off her seat, to die on the floor. Some of those around her continued to fixate on their phones. It is a horrifying video, and tens of millions have seen it, triggering a discussion about the soft-on-crime policies that put Brown back on the streets.
During the discussion, Jones noted that public money is spent to help homeless people and mused that perhaps those who refuse offered services should be imprisoned for the safety of the public. “Or involuntary lethal injection, or something,” Kilmeade said. “Just kill ‘em.” His co-host hastily interjected, asking: “How did we get to this point?”
On Sunday, Kilmeade apologized.
My apology pic.twitter.com/VeoLkpDyPq
— Brian Kilmeade (@kilmeade) September 14, 2025
“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,” he said. “I wrongly said they should get lethal injection. 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.”
I’m glad Kilmeade apologized. Many leapt to his defense, noting the emotional nature of the conversation and the horror of Zarutska’s murder and suggesting that this excused his comments, but they are dead wrong. In the face of brutal acts, it is more important to respond in a way that upholds the fundamental sanctity of every human life. Kilmeade is both a prominent media figure and a self-professed Roman Catholic, and this means that his responsibility is higher than a random social media poster venting rage online.
Kilmeade’s initial statement appears to come from a knee-jerk, eugenicist instinct that must be opposed tooth and nail. As our societies break down in the wake of the sexual revolution, it will be easy to dehumanize those who appear to be such a large part of the problem. Indeed, individuals like Decarlos Brown Jr. are responsible for their heinous crimes and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. He has been charged with first-degree murder in North Carolina (which has the death penalty) and with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system by the U.S. Department of Justice. He is currently in a mental health institution.
Christians in the public arena can and should advocate for such justice; often, it is the failure of justice that causes these horrific incidents and leads to public unrest to begin with. But in our era of dehumanization and eugenics, Christians must also be careful to never engage in dehumanization, and to consistently emphasize the sanctity of every human life. Kilmeade apologized for implying that all mentally ill homeless people are potential violent offenders, and I’m glad he did. It was a necessary corrective.
But what he should have apologized for was suggesting that the state-sanctioned and facilitated killing of homeless and mentally ill people might be a solution to violence. His statement was not simply horrific because it tarred an entire group with the same brush; it was horrific because it casually dismissed the sanctity of every human life.
