Critics are criticizing the so-called “Danielle Penny effect” after several bystanders and even police officers were shown standing by unaided as an innocent woman was burned to death in a subway car. In New York City.
The heinous crime was allegedly carried out By an illegal immigrant Who targeted the woman while she was sleeping. Sources told Fox News that the woman has not yet been identified days after the incident because she suffered severe burns.
Investigators also believe she was homeless and are working to track down any possible family members.
Sources previously identified Fox News Digital's person of interest as Sebastian Zabetta, 33, who has been charged First and second degree murderAs well as first-degree arson.
Sebastian Zabieta, accused of setting a woman on fire on a New York City subway train, appears in court, Tuesday, December 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Curtis Media across the pool)
Surveillance video of Sunday's attack showed the suspect approaching the woman, who was sitting motionless and possibly asleep, while she was on a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stilwell Avenue subway station and then setting her on fire.
It should also be noted that the address Zapeta gave police matches the address of a substance abuse support center in New York City.
A man who lives in the same shelter where Zabetta lived reportedly said that Zabetta smoked K2, a synthetic marijuana that can contain a lot of different chemicals and drugs, “every day,” according to the New York Post.
The man also claimed that Zabita would often smoke and drink and then “lose his energy.”
Sebastian Zabieta, accused of setting a woman on fire on a New York City subway, appears in court, Tuesday, December 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Curtis Media across the pool)
Zabeta is a previously deported migrant from Guatemala who was apprehended by Border Patrol and then deported by the Trump administration in June 2018 after he… They illegally crossed into Sonoita, Arizona, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Mary Ferguson previously told Fox News that Zabita later returned to the United States illegally.
Guardian Angels founder and local activist Curtis Sliwa told Fox News Digital that this recent act of violence on the New York subway is due to the “Daniel Penny effect.”
Saliwa described the chaotic scene, according to eyewitnesses, saying that no one was helping the woman, but that people were filming the entire ordeal, but were not cooperating with law enforcement.
Daniel Penny arrives in Manhattan Supreme Court, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. Penny, a Marine Corps 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 Omar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)
“And I think that's because of the horrific impact that the Danielle Penny situation had on this entire city. It wasn't a racially divisive issue…but what I found was that people didn't want to get involved,” Sliwa said.
“They don't want to be hacked, as I call it, which means, God forbid, being dragged into court and put on trial, and then having your life turned upside down.”
Daniel Penny, a Marine Corps veteran, was found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the subway strangulation death of Jordan Neely.
Benny was arrested in May 2023, nearly two weeks after he was interrogated and released after a fatal encounter with Neely, who was using drugs and threatening to kill people on a Manhattan F train when the 26-year-old architecture student caught him in his home. Headlock from behind.
Neely also had an active arrest warrant and an extensive criminal history at the time of his death. He was schizophrenic And the problem of drug abuse.
Sliwa said this was similar to Neely's case, and sources say Zabieta was smoking up to $30 worth of K2 a day, as well as drinking cheap vodka heavily, which he said was a “recipe for chaos.”
“No one intervened, and there were no police on that train,” Sliwa explained. “And when the police did respond, they did not do so quickly. I think increasingly we will see citizens backing off.”
Retired NYPD Inspector and Fox News contributor Paul Mauro also spoke about the incident and explained that a source told him that an officer was searching for a fire extinguisher and that police were responding as quickly as they could under the circumstances.
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“Look, you can never cover the entire subway, no matter what anyone says. And with the size of the subway system in New York City, the transit cops do a great job,” Mauro said.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul She came under fire on social media on Sunday after she touted how safe New York City's subway system was thanks to her efforts, claiming that crime had dropped on Big Apple trains since she deployed the National Guard in March.
The woman was burned alive in the subway on the same day. Fox News Digital reached out to Hochul's office but did not receive a response.
Fox News' Alexis McAdams, Fox News Digital's Michael Ruiz and Lauren Taylor contributed to this report.
Stephenie Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Tips and story ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com
