‘Just kill ‘em’: Fox News host proposes ‘lethal injection’ for homeless

A Fox News host has called for executing homeless individuals with mental health issues, suggesting “involuntary lethal injection” as a solution for addressing the social crisis.

Brian Kilmeade made the remark during a September 10 episode of the Fox & Friends program while discussing the recent murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a light rail train in North Carolina by a homeless person with an extensive criminal history.

The 23-year-old Ukrainian was stabbed to death on Charlotte’s Lynx Blue Line by Decarlos Brown Jr., a repeat offender with 14 prior arrests who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Co-host Lawrence Jones said that while there is compassion regarding the mental health crisis, “we shouldn’t have to live in fear” while authorities figure out what to do.

“Put him in a mental institution, put him in jail, and you guys figure it out. But 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’s not a money issue. They have given billions of dollars to mental health and the homeless population,” Jones said.

“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’re going to give you and — or you decide that you are going to be locked up in jail. That’s the way it has to be now,” he added.

Kilmeade interjected, “Or involuntary lethal injection… or something. Just kill ‘em.”

“Yeah,” Jones added.

Fellow co-host Ainsley Earhardt then said, “Yeah, Brian, why did it have to get to this point?”

Kilmeade then said that people in cities with large homeless populations were voting for the wrong elected officials, telling people in North Carolina to “wake up.”

He advocated for North Carolinians to vote for Republican Michael Whatley in the 2026 Senate race in the state, blaming Democratic Governor Roy Cooper for “these terrible laws.”

Kilmeade’s controversial remarks went viral on social media Saturday morning, drawing widespread condemnation, including calls for him to resign.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has received plenty of criticism for his own policies on homelessness, posted the Biblical quote Proverbs 21:13, “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.”

Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia tweeted, “America’s homeless population includes over a million children and tens of thousands of veterans, many of whom served in Iraq or Afghanistan.”

He continued, “Nobody deserves to be murdered by the government for mental illness or poverty. These Fox hosts are calling for mass murder—it’s sick.”

Author Shannon Watts posted, “[Brian Kilmeade] is advocating for extrajudicial killings on FOX, yet Matthew Dowd was fired by MSNBC [for] pointing out Charlie Kirk’s dangerous rhetoric. This moral asymmetry in the media and online is destroying democracy.”

Sarah Longwell, founder and publisher of the conservative site The Bulwark, wrote, “My god. What is happening?”

Brown is being held without bond at the Mecklenburg County Jail. His next court appearance is scheduled for September 19.

The new federal charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison or execution.

The US government said the homeless population increased by more than 18% last year, driven by high housing costs, natural disasters, and a spike in migration to large cities.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud) said that more than 770,000 people were in shelters, temporary housing or had no shelter.

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