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The mayor of Providence once again slammed a now-canceled mural project that would have honored Iryna Zarutska, a slain Ukrainian refugee living in North Carolina who was allegedly murdered by a career criminal on public transit last year.
“I regret the state of where we are in politics today where absolutely everything is political and controversial and hard,” Mayor Brett Smiley said in an interview with WPRI. “There’s nothing we should be doing to take away from the tragedy of the loss of life represented here, but then it was distorted by an erroneous tweet by our president and then a movement was funded by some right-wing billionaires, and it found its way to our community.”
Smiley decried the project for not following an unspecified “thoughtful process” through which the city commissions public art. The mural project was privately commissioned and was being painted on the exterior of a private business.
The unfinished controversial mural of Iryna Zarutska on the side of the Dark Lady club at 19 Snow St Providence, seen on March 30, 2026. (David DelPoio/The Providence Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
Elon Musk contributed $1 million to help fund a nationwide campaign of public murals depicting Zarutska.
PROVIDENCE MAYOR CALLS FOR REMOVAL OF IRYNA ZARUTSKA MURAL, SAYS INTENT IS ‘DIVISIVE,’ ‘MISGUIDED’
“A private owner of a building decided to put a mural up that I don’t think he understood the full context of, and I was asked whether I thought it should come down, and I thought it should,” said Smiley. “I didn’t stifle anyone’s speech, it was his decision whether to continue with it or to take it down, but it certainly wasn’t bringing us together as a community. There was really angry protests on both sides, a lot of hate speech online, and so I don’t think we’re a stronger, more united community because of this mural, and so I thought the best thing to do was just to take it down.”
Earlier this week, Smiley put out his first statement on the mural, calling it “divisive” and “misguided.”
Iryna Zarutska curls up in fear as a man looms over her during a disturbing attack on a Charlotte, N.C. light rail train. (NewsNation via Charlotte Area Transit System)
“The murder of the individual depicted in this mural was a devastating tragedy, but the misguided, isolating intent of those funding murals like the one across the country is divisive and does not represent Providence,” the statement said, later adding that he wants to “encourage our community to support local artists whose work brings us closer together rather than divide us.”
The business that planned on displaying the mural was The Dark Lady, an LGBT bar in the city.
Facing backlash from the LGBT community and others, the owners of the bar first defended themselves, saying on Instagram, saying, “Any of you who know us personally—even just for five minutes—realize the illicit intentions being portrayed here are completely false.”
The next day, the bar released a statement saying the project was being “temporarily” paused.
Booking photo of Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., taken Sept. 14, 2022, following his arrest in Mecklenburg County. Brown, 34, is now charged in the Aug. 22, 2025, stabbing death of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska aboard a Charlotte light-rail train. (Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO))
Still, the business faced intense heat.
On Tuesday, the bar said that after “reflecting and learning,” the project was officially shut down.
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Zarutska was killed on Aug. 22 after she was randomly stabbed from behind on a Charlotte, North Carolina light-rail train. The suspect in her unprovoked murder is Decarlos Brown Jr., who had a lengthy rap sheet including convictions for larceny, breaking and entering and armed robbery.
He had previously served five years in prison.
Fox News Digital reached out to Smiley’s office.
Fox News’ Louis Casiano Jr. contributed to this report.