Bystanders did nothing, but New Yorkers protested en masse on Monday, a day after an illegal Guatemalan immigrant was suspected of burning a hanging leather bag while he was sleeping on a Brooklyn subway car.
Horrifying video footage of the incident shows at least three lifeguards, one of whom was seen filming the shocking death on his mobile phone. An NYPD officer is seen standing outside a subway car as an unidentified victim is engulfed in flames after the attack Sunday morning.
“No one came to her rescue,” said Guardian Angels founder and community activist Curtis Sliwa. “There's no doubt that people don't want to get involved. That's the Daniel Penny factor. Frozen people. They're saying to themselves, 'I don't want to be stuck like Penny.
“People should have run to the burning woman. They didn't do anything. They didn't say anything,” Sliwa said, referring to bystanders' reluctance to intervene as the “Daniel Penny effect.” I called.
Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine, was charged with murder last year for allegedly strangling tramp Jordan Neely to death on a Manhattan subway train after she violently confronted a frightened passenger.
Penny was found not guilty of manslaughter earlier this month.
But some observers say his legal ordeal is giving would-be subway good Samaritans pause.
“People are reluctant to get involved in criminal activity,” Conservative Party Chairman Gerald Kasser, who lives in Brooklyn, told the Post on Monday. “Many New York City residents are thinking twice about acting because they believe they will not have support from Democratic elected officials. They are wary of revolving door justice.
“This murder should never have happened in the first place,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the state Senate committee that oversees the MTA said Monday that he wants answers from the transit agency about the deficiencies revealed in the incident.
“We want a breakdown of what happened, how it happened and why it took so long. [to make an arrest]” state Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-Queens), the committee chairman, told The Post on Monday.
“The world is in turmoil because of the actions of the previous administration,” Comrie said. “It’s too much. [mentally ill] People who should be in institutions are on the streets. Some of these people may need to limit their behavior. ”
The lawmaker spoke a day after the immigrant, identified by federal immigration authorities as 33-year-old Sebastian Zapeta Khalil, was charged after a horrific incident at the Coney Island subway.
Disturbing footage shows a man, identified as Zapeta-Khalil, sitting quietly on a bench at a train station as a woman suffers burns. He left the scene, but officers later caught him as he got off the subway at Manhattan's 34th Street Herald Square station.
Officials said charges are pending and Brooklyn prosecutors are awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death, but the charred state of the victim's body complicates the autopsy. That's what it means.
But the case remains unclear: why it took so long for officers to reach the burning woman, why Zapeta-Khalil was allowed to leave the scene after officers arrived, and why the subway This raised several questions, including whether the required fire extinguishers were not used in the vehicle. said the official.
A former state trooper has taken aim at Gov. Cathy Hochul, raising concerns about the state transportation agency.
“We all witnessed a terrible tragedy on the F train,” former Brooklyn state representative Dov Hikind said on the X show.
“This job is beyond your limits. Unfortunately, there are no recalls in New York, so I ask you to do the right thing,” Hikind said. “The day before the tragedy, you took a photo in New York to show how safe the subways are. How pathetic.
“You may have good intentions, but being governor is not for you. Get out of the way.”
