Critics are lambasting the so-called “Daniel Penny effect” after several bystanders and even police officers appeared to stand by without helping as an innocent woman burned to death on a subway car in New York City.
The heinous crime was allegedly carried out by an illegal immigrant who targeted the woman as she slept. Sources tell Fox News the woman has not yet been identified days after the horror because she was so severely burned.
Investigators also believe that she was homeless and are working to track down any possible family members.
Sources previously identified the person of interest to Fox News Digital as Sebastian Zapeta, 33, who has been charged with first and second-degree murder, as well as first-degree arson.
Sebastian Zapeta, accused of setting a woman on fire inside a New York City subway train, appears in court, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Curtis Means via Pool)
Surveillance video of Sunday’s attack showed the suspect approaching the woman, who was sitting motionless and may have been sleeping, while aboard a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station and then setting her on fire.
It is also noted that the address Zapeta gave police matches that of a NYC substance abuse support center.
A man who lived at the same shelter Zapeta reportedly lived at said Zapeta smoked K2, a synthetic marijuana which can contain lots of different chemicals and drugs, “every day,” according to reporting by The New York Post.
The man also claimed Zapeta would often smoke, drink, and then “lose it”.
SUSPECT ACCUSED OF BURNING WOMAN TO DEATH ON NYC SUBWAY IS PREVIOUSLY DEPORTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT
Sebastian Zapeta, accused of setting a woman on fire inside a New York City subway train, appears in court, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Curtis Means via Pool)
Zapeta is a previously deported migrant from Guatemala who was apprehended by Border Patrol and subsequently deported by the Trump administration in June 2018 after he crossed illegally into Sonoita, Arizona, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson Marie Ferguson previously told Fox News, adding that Zapeta later re-entered the U.S. illegally.
Guardian Angels founder and local activist Curtis Sliwa told Fox News Digital that this most recent act of violence on a New York-based subway is 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 not cooperating with law enforcement.
NYPD ARRESTS MIGRANT WHO ALLEGEDLY SET WOMAN ON FIRE ON SUBWAY TRAIN, WATCHED HER BURN TO DEATH
Daniel Penny arrives at Manhattan Supreme Court, Friday, November 22, 2024. Penny, a Marine veteran, was charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide 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 had on this entire city. It was not a racially divisive case… but what I have detected 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 into court, prosecuted, and then have your life turned upside down.”
Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran, was found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely.
Penny was arrested in May 2023, nearly two weeks after he was questioned and released following a deadly encounter with Neely, who was high on drugs and threatening to kill people on a Manhattan F train when the 26-year-old architecture student grabbed him in a headlock from behind.
Neely also had an active arrest warrant and lengthy criminal history at the time of his death. He had schizophrenia and a drug abuse problem.
Sliwa said this was similar to Neely’s case and that sources say Zapeta had smoked up to $30 a day worth of K2, plus drinking cheap vodka heavily, which he said is a “recipe for mayhem.”
“Nobody got involved, no police on that train. When the police did respond. They didn’t do it expeditiously. And I think increasingly, you are going to see citizens just retreat,” Sliwa explained.
Retired NYPD inspector and Fox News contributor Paul Mauro also weighed in on the incident and explained that a source told him that an officer was looking for a fire extinguisher and police were responding as fast they could under the circumstances.
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“Look, you can never fully cover the subway, no matter what anybody says. And with the size of the New York City subway system, the transit cops do a great job,” Mauro said.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul was slammed on social media Sunday after touting how safe the New York City subway system has become thanks to her efforts, claiming that crime has decreased on Big Apple trains since she deployed the National Guard in March.
The woman was burned alive on the subway the very same day. Fox News Digital reached out to Hochul’s office but did not hear back.
Fox News’ Alexis McAdams, Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz, and Lorraine Taylor contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price is writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com