Irwin Rivera's sister has said that the UFC bantamweight was not "acting like himself" days before he allegedly tried to kill his siblings. Rivera was arrested on two counts of attempted murder for stabbing his sisters on Thursday, according to reports. In a statement on Facebook, his sister Lezlye said she wanted to "clear the air" on the circumstances surrounding the alleged attack.
"This past weekend my brother hasn't been acting like himself," she wrote on Friday. "Not sleeping or talking like himself and completely just losing interest in his training, which we all know is what he lives to do."
Lezlye said she was concerned about her brother and rushed to take a flight to his home in Boynton Beach, Florida.
"Unfortunately his mental stage was worse then we could of imagined and before we could help him he completely broke."
Lezlye and another sister had both been staying in Rivera's house when the attack took place on Wednesday, according to a police report. Rivera allegedly walked into their room in the middle of the night and stabbed them both several times. He fled the scene but was arrested the following morning. During police interviews, Rivera told officers it was his "purpose" to kill his sisters and that he had been told to do so by "a higher power."
In her statement, Lezlye assured followers that she and her sister were fine. She also defended her brother.
"This is not easy for me or my family but I ask to pleeeeesse keep MY BROTHER in your prayers , pray he can stabilize and come back to us bc sometime withing the past 24hours his mentality has been completely corrupted into something unrecognizable," she wrote. "Again we LOVE OUR BROTHER and are 100% here to support him n try n get him this help he so desperately needs!"
In a separate Facebook post Lezlye described Rivera as "the sweetest most loving positive being" who has "fallen into an unstable mind state."
She asked followers to pray that he "may come back to us n regain himself."
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