VIDEO: Slain Man's Parents To Christie: Stop Talking About Our Son

By Tom Davis/NJ Patch

The family of a congressional intern who was killed on a train is protesting the fact that Gov. Chris Christie invoked the slain man’s name in a speech.

On Friday, Kevin Sutherland’s parents, Douglas and Terry Sutherland, issued a statement protesting Christie’s remarks.

The New Jersey governor and 2016 presidential candidate called for a “fresh approach” to drug addiction and fighting crime in his speech, according to The Hill.

Christie referenced Kevin Sutherland’s death during the campaign speech on Thursday in Camden.

“The fact that Gov. Chris Christie would invoke my son’s name in a politically motivated speech just three days after our family laid him to rest shows that he cares little about the grief my family is feeling,” the Sutherland family said to Hearst Connecticut Media, according to the report.

Christie talked about how Sutherland was “a bright young man with a promising future ... And now all his parents can do is mourn,” according to the report.

“The reason the killer was on the train?” he was quoted in the report. “His charge got reduced to a misdemeanor — and he was released the day after being arrested.”

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., also said it was “vile” for Christie to be using a speech earlier this week to talk about the violent death of one of Himes’s former interns.

Himes said in a statement that Christie was politicizing the death of Kevin Sutherland to fit talking points on criminal justice reform, and that it was unethical of him to do so.

“Kevin Sutherland was a friend of mine,” Himes said of the 24-year-old killed on July 4 in Washington, D.C. “To use Kevin’s death to score political points is vile.”

Sutherland was stabbed to death on D.C.’s Metro system in what has been described as a botched robbery.