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Critics slam the so-called “Daniel Penny effect” after several bystanders and even police officers appeared to stand by helplessly as an innocent woman burned to death in a subway car in New York.
A heinous crime has allegedly been committed by an illegal immigrant who shot the woman while she was sleeping. Sources told Fox News that the woman has not yet been identified days after the horror because she was badly burned.
Investigators also believe she was homeless and are working to locate possible family members.
Sources previously identified the person of interest to Fox News Digital as Sebastian Zapeta, 33, who is accused of first and second degree murderas well as first degree fire.
Sebastian Zapeta, accused of setting a woman on fire on a subway train in New York, appears in court Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Curtis means via Poole)
Surveillance video of Sunday’s attack showed the suspect approach the woman, who was sitting motionless and possibly sleeping, while she was on the F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station, then set her on fire.
It also notes that the address Zapeta gave police matches the address of an addiction support center in New York.
A man who lived at the same shelter where Zapeta allegedly lived said Zapeta smoked K2, a synthetic marijuana that can contain many different chemicals and drugs, “every day,” according to a report by The New York Post.
The man also claimed that Zapeta would often smoke, drink, and then “get lost.”
Suspect accused of burning woman to death on New York subway before deportation ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT
Sebastian Zapeta, accused of setting a woman on fire on a subway train in New York, appears in court Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Curtis means via Poole)
A previously deported migrant from Guatemala who was arrested by the Border Patrol and then deported by the Trump administration in June 2018 after illegally crossed into Sonoita, Arizona, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Marie Ferguson previously told Fox News, adding that Zapeta later re-entered the U.S. illegally.
Guardian Angel founder and grassroots activist Curtis Sliwa told Fox News Digital that this latest act of violence on the New York subway was due to the “Daniel Penny effect.”
Sliwa described the chaotic scene, according to witnesses, saying that no one was helping the woman, but that people were filming the whole ordeal but did not cooperate with the police.
NYPD ARRESTS MIGRANT WHO ALLEGEDLY SET WOMAN ON FIRE ON SUBWAY TRAIN, WATCHED BURNING
Daniel Penny arrives in Manhattan Supreme Court on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. Penny, a Marine Corps veteran, is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in the 2023 death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)
“And I think that’s because of the chilling effect that the Daniel Penny situation has had on this whole city. It wasn’t a racially divisive case … but what I’ve found is that people just don’t want to get involved,” Sliwa said. .
“They don’t want to be penetrated, as I call it, which means, God forbid, dragged to court, prosecuted, and then have your life turned upside down.”
Daniel Penny, a Marine Corps veteran, was found not guilty of manslaughter on the subway when Jordan Neely died by suffocation.
Penny was arrested in May 2023, nearly two weeks after he was questioned and released following a deadly encounter with Neely, who was drugged and threatening to kill people on the Manhattan F train when the 26-year-old architecture student grabbed him and headbutted him from behind.
Neely also had an active warrant for his arrest and a lengthy criminal history at the time of his death. He had schizophrenia and the problem of drug abuse.
Sliwa said this is similar to Neely’s case, and that sources say Zapeta was smoking up to $30 worth of K2 a day, plus drinking heavily on cheap vodka, which he said was a “recipe for mayhem.”
“Nobody got involved, there were no police on that train. When the police did respond. They didn’t do it expeditiously. And I think you’ll see more and more citizens just retreating,” explained Sliwa.
Retired NYPD inspector and Fox News contributor Paul Mauro also commented on the incident, explaining that a source told him the officer was asking for a fire extinguisher and police were responding as quickly as they could under the circumstances.
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“Look, you can never fully cover the subway, no matter what anyone says. And with the size of the subway system in New York, the transit cops do a great job,” Mauro said.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul came under fire on social media Sunday after she touted how safe New York’s subway system has become thanks to her efforts, claiming crime has dropped on the Big Apple’s trains since she deployed the National Guard in March.
A woman was burned alive in the subway on the same day. Fox News Digital reached out to Hochul’s office, but no one responded.
Fox News’ Alexis McAdams, Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz and Lorraine Taylor contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Tips and story ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com
