Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) proudly touted her efforts to improve safety on the New York City Metro, but a recent incident quickly shattered her absurd narrative.
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In March, I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day.
Since deploying the @NationalGuardNY to support @NYPDnews and @MTA safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up. pic.twitter.com/T7uRxx9nIO
— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) December 22, 2024
She posted that mere hours after an innocent woman burned alive on a train.
The story got even worse, however, because incoming border czar Tom Homan has identifed the suspect as Sebastian Zapeta, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala.
News: 🚨
Does this surprise you at all?
Sebastian Zapeta has been identified as the man who committed the horrific act of setting a woman on fire on the New York Subway.
He is, of course, an illegal alien from Guatemala. And yes, the Biden administration did not deport him… pic.twitter.com/PRIOfo4qSl
— Tom Homan – Border Czar Commentary and Updates (@TomHoman_) December 22, 2024
“A migrant from Guatemala has been arrested for allegedly lighting a sleeping subway rider on fire in Brooklyn on Sunday morning — then watching as his innocent victim burned to death in what the New York’s top cop called ‘one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit,’” reports the New York Post. “The savage killing — which happened at about 7:30 a.m. on an idling F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station — shocked commuters, MTA workers, and NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who said Sunday that the heinous crime ‘took the life of an innocent New Yorker.’”
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Additional images of the suspect who allegedly set a woman on fire at NYC Subway and then sat across the platform and watched her burn. https://t.co/U9shP3x3Qy pic.twitter.com/EfifoCJ7LV
— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) December 22, 2024
“As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim, who was in a seated position at the end of a subway car … and used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds,” Tisch said at a press conference Sunday.
Patrolling cops smelled and saw the smoke, then found the flame-covered woman, the commissioner said.
They extinguished the blaze, but the woman died at the scene.
Horrifying video obtained by The Post showed the suspect calmly looking on as flames consumed the still-unidentified woman, who stood inside the open subway car doors.
A transit cop walked by, and seemed to pull out a radio and say something as they continued down the platform.
After the cop passed, the suspect got up from the bench — then the clip cut off.
Another video shared on social media shows the suspect get off the bench and walk over to the open subway door, where he starts fanning the burning woman with a piece of clothing — first with two hands on the cloth and then with just one.
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Authorities confirmed that the suspect entered the U.S. illegally through Arizona in 2018 with no known criminal record in New York. Police and officials praised the public’s role in the arrest, calling it a collaborative effort. The attack appears random since no connection between the suspect and the victim has been found.
