‘A Slap in the Face’: Murder Victim’s Family Outraged as Mamdani Expresses Sorrow at the Death of Accused Killer

On Aug. 8, 2024, Jose Miranda was randomly, brutally hacked to death with a meat cleaver at a Bronx laundromat, leaving behind two children. His accused killer, Clarence Woodward, who owned a rap sheet nearly 30 arrests long, was set to stand trial but was found dead in his cell Tuesday morning at Rikers Island.

To the shock and anger of Miranda’s grieving family, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani immediately expressed his sorrow at Woodward’s passing.

Mamdani took to X to say he was “deeply saddened” by Woodward’s death and, “My thoughts are with his family and loved ones as they grieve this loss.”

He then turned to his dream of closing the notorious Rikers Island prison.

Not a word about his alleged victim, who, surveillance video shows, was merely sitting in the laundromat when set upon by Woodward. No mention of his alleged crime. No expression of regret that Woodward did not live to face justice in a court of law. Only grief for a violent con, and a wish to see Rikers closed.

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Keeping on brand for a mayor who, as the Daily Signal’s Jarrett Stepman chronicled earlier this year, is “deprioritizing crime-fighting.”

“It’s terrible,” Miranda’s grieving mother, Marisol, told the New York Post on Thursday. “That’s not fair. That’s not fair at all.”

“I’m not happy with what [Mamdani] did and I need him talking about my son. He was killed,” she said.

“He could have paid his regards but acknowledged us too,” Miranda’s younger brother Angel added. “He should have mentioned us first and then, ‘Sorry the person that did it also has passed away too.’

“At least give us a little heads up and a little gratuity towards us. We lost a family member. You can never replace that,” Miranda said. “It was a slap in the face.”

According to the Post, Woodward’s criminal record included four felony robbery arrests, five assault charges, and several weapons, drug possession, and larceny charges. He had only been out of state prison for a month when he allegedly attacked Miranda with a meat cleaver, repeatedly stabbing him in the legs, torso, and back. He then attacked a second man, a homeless man who was sleeping in the laundromat.

Mamdani’s expression of sympathy for Woodward drew an outcry far beyond his victim’s family. Public response to his viral post, which has been seen by over 4.6 million people, is almost universally critical. Among the cleaner condemnations:

Herman Gonzalez, who manages a supermarket near the laundromat and knew Miranda, chided Mamdani for mourning “an assassin.”

“It’s totally upside down,” Gonzalez told the Post. “He should realize why that guy was in jail.”

Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt noted how “Commie” Mamdani’s response fits a broader “suicidal empathy” of the Left.

Tablet Magazine Editor-at-Large Liel Leibovitz, writing in the New York Post, equally wondered, “Why would the mayor offer his solemn sympathies to the Woodwards while having nothing to say in support of the Mirandas?”

Leibovitz answered his own question: “Because in Mamdani’s moral universe—the inverted, bizzarro worldview championed by the radical left—psycho killers are forever wronged and aggrieved souls worthy of our adoration, while their victims should remain silent and check their privilege.”

Although crime is down thus far in New York in 2026, there remain plenty of victims. According to NYPD CompStat reports, the week of Aug. 17-23 saw 19 shooting victims and 562 felony assaults in Mamdani’s New York City.