Trump condemns Charlotte stabbing incident: 'They're evil people'

President Donald Trump on Monday condemned a brutal attack in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month, which allegedly resulted in the death of a young Ukrainian woman. 

Iryna Zarutska was fatally stabbed on the city’s light rail train on Aug. 22. Zarutska, who was 23-years-old, was stabbed three times, including once in the neck and was pronounced dead on the scene. The suspect has been identified as 34-year-old Decarlos Brown, who was arrested shortly after the alleged killing and charged with first-degree murder.

Trump told an audience at the Museum of the Bible that he was sending his "love and hope" to Zarutska's family, and that the country needs to confront heinous crimes and evilness in the world if it wants to remain united, Fox News reported. 

"We're all people of religion, but there are evil people, and we have to confront that," Trump said. "A lunatic just got up and started. It's right on tape. Not really watchable because it's so horrible, but just viciously stabbed. She's just sitting there ... So they're evil people. We have to be able to handle that. If we don't handle that, we don't have a country."

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles reacted to the incident on Saturday, stating she was "heartbroken" over the murder.

“The video of the heartbreaking attack that took Iryna Zarutska’s life is now public," Lyles said, per The Hill. "This was a senseless and tragic loss. My prayers remain with her loved ones as they continue to grieve through an unimaginable time.

“Like so many of you, I’m heartbroken — and I’ve been thinking hard about what safety really looks like in our city," she continued. "I remain committed to doing all we can to protect our residents and ensure Charlotte is a place where everyone feels safe.”

Lyles recently came under fire for another statement on the stabbing, where she expressed compassion for the alleged killer, whom she said "appears to have suffered a crisis." 

"This is a tragic situation that sheds light on problems with society safety nets related to mental healthcare and the systems that should be in place," she wrote to a local WSOC-TV reporter. “We will never arrest [our] way out [of] issues such as homelessness and mental health."

Lyles claimed she was not going to "villainize" someone who struggles with serious mental health issues like Brown, who she said was schizophrenic, and emphasized that people with disorders like schizophrenia need "to be treated with the same compassion, diligence and commitment as cancer and heart disease."

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.