NY - Female passenger died after being set on fire by man on subway - NYC - December 22, 2024

[KooshBall]

Sounds it. Police havent mentioned any use of accelerant but the new york post claims she was surrounded by empty liquor bottles

If authorities can't even control open alcohol use on the subway, I don't see how they can keep people safe from random acts of violence. I stay away from public transportation in California for the same reason, it has become very unsafe. I hope the woman passed quickly and did not suffer, being burned alive sounds like an absolutely horrible way to die.

 

[jjenny]

Maybe someone could have stopped him before he lit the fire

I don't believe there were any other people in the position to stop anything. The attack is captured on the surveillance video. I don't think there were other people present inside the train car. As far as I know police isn't asking for eyewitnesses to the attack to come forward. I don't think there were any.

 

[Panniniclaus]

Possibility the woman was passed out from her alcohol intake? Which I am hoping somehow made her feel no pain.. Although I very much doubt it

 

[TMcgee]

What would be possible to do to help in this situation unless you have a fire extinguisher or a fire blanket (which people don't normally carry with them). It'd be really hard to put the fire out without a fire blanket or a fire extinguisher. If you try to use clothing to stop the fire it can just fan the flames.

Maybe nothing could be done, but it doesn’t look like anyone even tried. Someone had to have taken that video, so a woman is burning alive in the doorway of a train car and someone’s just standing there filming her? A security guard appears to walk by and glance at her but doesn’t stop. Both of these bystanders in addition to the suspect who’s just watching from a bench. I hope she wasn’t conscious enough to notice all those people just watching her die.

 

[jjenny]

Maybe nothing could be done, but it doesn’t look like anyone even tried. Someone had to have taken that video, so a woman is burning alive in the doorway of a train car and someone’s just standing there filming her? A security guard appears to walk by and glance at her but doesn’t stop. Both of these bystanders in addition to the suspect who’s just watching from a bench. I hope she wasn’t conscious enough to notice all those people just watching her die.

Police got the fire extinguishers and put the fire out. By that time it was too late to save the woman, but certainly it's not true that nobody tried.

 

[TexLil]

According to an NYPD press conference earlier today, 3 high school students recognized the suspect from flyers that had been quickly distributed and called 911. (This was also in the subway.)

The relatively short press conference is linked in this NYPD tweet:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1870952880783659158

- very thankful the suspect was apprehended (& quickly before he could hurt/kill anyone else)
- interesting that it was 3 high school students who made the identification - Could the suspect be a high school student? Or did the students just see/know this person? Perhaps they all frequently rode the subway?
- horrific cringe without any thought for fellow (wo)man - if convicted i hope this person is prosecuted to the full extent of the law

MOO

 

[jjenny]

- very thankful the suspect was apprehended (& quickly before he could hurt/kill anyone else)
- interesting that it was 3 high school students who made the identification - Could the suspect be a high school student? Or did the students just see/know this person? Perhaps they all frequently rode the subway?
- horrific cringe without any thought for fellow (wo)man - if convicted i hope this person is prosecuted to the full extent of the law

MOO

Suspect is not a high school student. He is an adult male, 33 years old.

Guatemalan migrant arrested for setting sleeping NYC subway rider on fire, watching her burn to death: cops

The savage killing happened at about 7:30 a.m. Sunday on an idling F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station.

nypost.com

 

[I am not Sherlock H.]

Suspect is not a high school student. He is an adult male, 33 years old.

Guatemalan migrant arrested for setting sleeping NYC subway rider on fire, watching her burn to death: cops

The savage killing happened at about 7:30 a.m. Sunday on an idling F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station.

nypost.com

Thank you for the link to the updated article @jjenny … and if I understand and read it correctly, the suspect did possess a ‘weapon’. It seems that he was found to possess a lighter when detained for arrest. And who knows what else the suspect had in their possession. Quoting a line from that article:

“Tisch said the suspect had a lighter in his pocket when he was picked up.”

Such a horrid act. And thank goodness the young students were observant and reported what they did to authorities.

Will be interested to learn what additional details are of this individual. Including whether they are a resident or US citizen. MOO

 

[Angelcat13]

NY subways are not looking very safe.

I thought that the police can handle any situation on the subways. Apparently not. JMO.

I just started reading this horrible story, so I may have missed some details. But I am wondering if the train HAD reached the end of the line (IIRC there was a comment about them both being seen riding the train towards the end of the line) and the police officers that smelled the smoke may have been doing a final walk-through to verify that the train is empty - especially if it is known that homeless people often ride the rails as long as they can when the temperatures are brutal as they are right now. If this is the case, they may not have even been aware that there was a problem - especially if the victim was lying down at that point and if the alleged attacker was also lying down or crouching in order to not be seen from the outside.

 

[mickey2942]

why does someone do this?

Who knows. And guess what, who dares to stop him? Who needs a trial hanging over their heads to try to stop crime in NYC?! If nothing else, the "Penny Trial" taught everyone to just MYOB on the subway in NYC.

 

[caradana]

MOO: I believe this parked subway train was acting as a de facto homeless shelter for the severely mentally ill. Not uncommon. Get on the 7 out near JFK and you’ll see this 365 nights of the year post-COVID. MOO: it amazes me how severe this has to get before a reckoning happens, but in some ways this reminds me of Times Square in the 1990s. It had to get truly terrifying for everyone who stepped foot in it before we mustered the will as a society to get behind turning it around.

 

[caradana]

Who knows. And guess what, who dares to stop him? Who needs a trial hanging over their heads to try to stop crime in NYC?! If nothing else, the "Penny Trial" taught everyone to just MYOB on the subway in NYC.

I hear and empathize with the desire to make the connection, MOO: I honestly do not believe that trial occurred to anyone closely involved here, not whomever was videoing, not the suspect, not the cop with the radio, not the victim, not anyone else within the vicinity. MOO: I don’t think rational and calm long-term decisions were made here. MOO: I think this was a proverbial crash of severe mental health issues in a totally uncontrolled environment that would terrify most conventional Americans. Not blaming, not faulting, just observing.

 

[Deleted member 39678]

I just started reading this horrible story, so I may have missed some details. But I am wondering if the train HAD reached the end of the line (IIRC there was a comment about them both being seen riding the train towards the end of the line) and the police officers that smelled the smoke may have been doing a final walk-through to verify that the train is empty - especially if it is known that homeless people often ride the rails as long as they can when the temperatures are brutal as they are right now. If this is the case, they may not have even been aware that there was a problem - especially if the victim was lying down at that point and if the alleged attacker was also lying down or crouching in order to not be seen from the outside.

So this miscreant may have planned his attack in advance, knowing that law enforcement would not be effective in preventing this heinous crime. JMO.

 

[Knox]

The suspect who was arrested, is sitting on the bench watching, sheer evil!!

Guatemalan migrant arrested for setting sleeping NYC subway rider on fire, watching her burn to death: cops

The savage killing happened at about 7:30 a.m. Sunday on an idling F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station.

nypost.com

After the cop passed, the suspect got up as if to walk away — then the clip cut off.

 

[Arkay]

I am wondering if the train HAD reached the end of the line (IIRC there was a comment about them both being seen riding the train towards the end of the line) and the police officers that smelled the smoke may have been doing a final walk-through to verify that the train is empty - especially if it is known that homeless people often ride the rails as long as they can when the temperatures are brutal as they are right now

The Coney Island station, (in actuality the Stillwell Avenue station), is the terminus for four very busy subway lines——the F, Q, D and N lines.

It’s an elevated track, not below ground, and it is enormous for an el train station.

There is also a bus station terminal below the tracks.

Since it is a terminal station, the trains linger there for awhile before beginning their routes again.

Transit police are there constantly. Apparently they went to that car immediately upon smelling smoke, but made the mistake of not knowing that the man they shooed out was the culprit.

My guess is that the video is from within the subway car, not something nonchalantly filmed by a heartless passenger.

Whether the alcohol bottles were from the woman, or from the man who used them as accelerant, I don’t know.

I do believe the woman was homeless. As others here have said, it was freezing here today and so the unhoused do tend to sleep there.

This is a tragedy. She was a person in despairing circumstances. The guy should be deported and then incarcerated in Guatemala.

IMO

ETA: Found a link at Wiki

Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue station - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[airportwoman]

It is so sad that no one tried to help her.

It was just him and her in the car.

 

[MollyHarps]

Just saw this on the news

Such a senseless crime.

I hope they manage to identify the women - if she is indeed homeless these people can often be harder to identify.

 

[sunspun]

In the video of this that I saw, there was a black square placed over the victim, to keep it from being too graphic, but you can still see red/orange glow around the edges of the square from the fire, and directly across from the victim, you also see there's a man just sitting there, looking at the victim on fire! I didn't see anyone else around, but almost immediately, a policeman runs in and grabs the fire extinguisher, and that was the end of the video. I don't know how long she had been on fire before the video started though.

But it's true, the man who allegedly did it was sitting right there staring at her as she burned. I'm sick thinking about it. She had to have been screaming. I don't know what they can possibly do to punish this person to make the punishment fit the crime, since they won't put him to death in NY. If they just deport him, he'd probably come right back, so hope not that. Horrible awful thing.

 

[GRT]

Who knows. And guess what, who dares to stop him? Who needs a trial hanging over their heads to try to stop crime in NYC?! If nothing else, the "Penny Trial" taught everyone to just MYOB on the subway in NYC.

Sadly, this is very true!

 

[Skigh]

Suspect arrested after woman was set on fire and burned to death

Sebastin Zapeta, 33, a Guatemalan migrant, has been arrested for allegedly setting a woman on fire onboard the New York City subway Sunday morning.

www.dailymail.co.uk