Providence mayor defends comments condemning mural of killing of Ukrainian refugees
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Providence’s mayor also ignored a canceled mural project that would have honored Iryna Zarutska, a slain Ukrainian refugee living in North Carolina who was allegedly killed by a gunman on public transit last year.
“I regret the state of politics today where everything is political and controversial and difficult,” said Mayor Brett Smiley in an interview with WPRI. “There is nothing we should be doing to end the tragedy of the deaths of the people we represented here, but it was distorted by our president’s wrong tweet and then there was an organization funded by some billionaires, and it found its way into our society.
Smiley criticized the project for not following the “due process” by which the city approves public art. The mural project was commissioned privately and was painted out of private enterprise.
The controversial unfinished painting by 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 donated $1 million to help fund a national campaign for public murals featuring Zarutska.
PROVIDENCE MAYOR WANTS IRYNA ZARUTSKA MURAL REMOVED, SAYS OBJECTIVE ‘DISTINCT,’ ‘MISLIKE’
“The private owner of the building decided to put a mural on the wall which I think he fully understood, and I was asked if I thought it should come down, I thought it should come down,” said Smiley. “I didn’t stop anyone’s speech, it was their decision to keep it or take it down, but it certainly didn’t bring us together as a community. There were really angry protests on both sides, a lot of hate speech online, so I don’t think we’re a stronger, more united community because of this mural, so I thought the best thing to do was take it down.”
Earlier this week, Smiley issued his first statement on the painting, calling it “divisive” and “misleading.”
Iryna Zarutska cowers in fear as a man climbs her during an attack on a Charlotte, NC light rail. (NewsNation via Charlotte Area Transit System)
“The killing of the person depicted in this painting is a tragic tragedy, but the wrongful, divisive intent of funding murals like those across the country is divisive and does not represent Providence,” the statement said, later adding that it wants to “encourage our community to support local artists whose work brings us closer together rather than dividing us.”
The business that planned to display the mural was The Dark Lady, an LGBT venue in the city.
Facing backlash from the LGBT community and others, the bar’s owners initially defended themselves, saying on Instagram, “Anyone of you who knows yourself—even for five minutes—can see that the illegal intentions expressed here are completely false.”
The next day, the bar issued a statement saying the operation was “temporarily suspended”.
A booking photo of Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., taken Sept. 14, 2022, following his arrest in Mecklenburg County. Brown, 34, is now charged in the August 22, 2025, stabbing death of Ukrainian fugitive Iryna Zarutska aboard a Charlotte light rail train. (Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO))
However, the business has faced a lot of heat.
On Tuesday, the bar said that after “reflection and study,” the operation was officially closed.
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Zarutska was killed on Aug. 22 after being randomly stabbed in the back on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina. The suspect in the unprovoked killing is Decarlos Brown Jr., who had a long rap sheet that included kidnapping, burglary and armed robbery.
He previously served five years in prison.
Fox News Digital reached out to Smiley’s office.
Louis Casiano Jr. of Fox News contributed to this report.
