The family of the man accused of trying to rape a Bronx woman is speaking out about his death.

Earl Nash, 43, was killed by the victim's husband, who beat him with a tire iron in their Bronx apartment building, on Monday. Police say that Nash forced his way into an apartment at 1240 Washington Avenue and ripped off Nenegale Diallo's clothes. She said that he threatened her ("I don't want anything. I don't want money. I'm going to rape you") and beat her.

At one point, she managed to call her husband, Mamadou Diallo, who then rushed back into the building and, upon seeing Nash, beat him to death. Diallo was initially charged with manslaughter but prosecutors later lowered the charges to assault. A judge released him without bail and Diallo later explained he was defending his wife, "I’m not a hero. If anyone touches my family, I’m fighting for my family and myself, that’s it... I’m not happy because I know a man died."

Nash has been described as a career criminal, with over a dozen past arrests. He had recently served prison time for bribery and drug possession. Now, Nash's family has released a statement:

"We, the family of Earl Nash, are deeply devastated and saddened by the recent events surrounding the attack of Mrs. Diallo on May 30, 2016. Earl has been labeled as a "career criminal" by those in the media. And while it's true he has been in and out of jail for the past 15 years, he had also been diagnosed with and untreated for schizophrenia.

"In his early interaction with law enforcement it was identified that he needed serious medical treatment, however the only treatment available was through the correctional system. The Earl we knew and loved was a compassionate man, had a passion for life, loved his family and was a talented and promising actor. After his diagnosis, we watched him become unrecognizable and felt helpless, untrained and therefore unable to give him the support he needed.

"As his family who knew him best, we have been mourning losing him to severe schizophrenia for years. We pray that Mrs. Diallo and family will recover from the unfortunate trauma they've experienced. It is evident by the lack of support for mental health treatment, suffered by Earl and many others, that incarceration alone is not the answer. There is much work to be done in the area of mental health reform and its place in the justice system.

"We would like to be clear that our family is very empathic concerning this tragic event as we also mourn the loss of our loved one. It is our hope that the District Attorney's Office will review both incidents fairly and in accordance to the law. As you can imagine, this is a very difficult time and we asked the media to respect our family's privacy."

A coordinator with the Rockaway Nassau Safety Patrol told WABC 7 that Nash had followed a woman in the Rockaways last Friday, and tried to break into multiple homes: "There was another house he was trying to break in and as we were going, he was constantly on the move and we were here with the police looking for him." Nash was arrested, but was released.

At a press conference yesterday, Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce commented about the incident, "We’re not faulting [Diallo]l with responding to his wife of course not, [but] call 911." He added:

"I have video evidence of him striking this individual with a tire iron alright inside the elevator directly after the assault," said Boyce. "We found the wife to be very believable, gave a very good story we believe that did happen this individual did try to rape her.”

“[Nash] burglarized the apartment, pushed her and assaulted her all of that is true. However we do see this individual take a tire iron and hit him over the head several times we have that on video,” he said. “So that was presented that will go before a grand jury, we’ll deal with it that way."

Boyce reiterated, “Call 911 and let us do our job."