New York City police are facing outrage after officers were caught on camera walking past a burning woman on the subway.
Terrifying footage posted online shows the woman leaning against the doorframe of the F train on Stillwell Avenue in Coney Island as flames erupt from her head and waist, while pieces of fabric from her clothing apparently fall to the ground.
A Metropolitan Transportation Authority police officer could then be seen casually walking by and just looking back at the woman still burning.
Moments later, another officer walked by and raised his hands, apparently in disbelief at the incident.
Only one man could be seen approaching the burning woman, using a shirt to fan the flames, before one of the officers could just be heard telling onlookers, “Please move over.”
It is now believed the man in the footage was Guatemalan migrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, who is accused of setting the passenger on fire while she slept.
NYPD Police Chief Jessica Tisch told a news conference that responding officers were unaware the suspect was on the scene at the time. Chief of Transit Joe Gulotta claimed that police were at the scene trying to obtain a fire extinguisher.
But their apparent inaction in the video has prompted many online to criticize the country’s largest police force.
At least two police officers were caught on camera walking past a woman as she was burned alive on the F train on Stillwell Avenue in Coney Island
The footage showed one man fanning the flames. The man is now believed to be suspect Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33
“As a former fire department EMT and the son of a retired NYPD officer… my father and I both watched this video and were outraged by the officer’s response at the scene,” wrote Pat Calvin, a Houston meteorologist.
Former NYPD Commissioner Bernard B Kerik, meanwhile, accused prosecutors who charged Daniel Penny of manslaughter in the May 2023 death of 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator Jordan Neely.
“Where are the Daniel Pennys when you need them?” he asked. “Nobody even tried to help this woman. They watched like cowards.
“Biden, Harris and (Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro) Mayorkas (are) responsible for making sure no one tries to help her.”
Another
“Also f*** anyone who stood around,” she said. “I hate that we don’t have a sense of responsibility to each other.”
Others also compared the officers’ inability to take action to the manhunt that ensued after United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot in midtown Manhattan and the perpetrator went for suspect Luigi Mangione.
“Last week, hordes of NYPD officers surrounded Luigi Mangione as his perpetrator walked to the courthouse in front of the cameras as if he were a captured mutant, and yesterday an NYPD officer literally walked past a woman on fire on the subway and did nothing,” activist Chip Goines wrote.
The officers’ inaction led many to criticize the country’s largest police force online
“What does the NYPD actually do?”
‘Set a woman on fire? Casually released by the NYPD and picked up a few hours later by a few cops,” another added.
‘Suspected of hitting a CEO? National manhunt followed by a possible death penalty in a state that has not applied it for decades.’
Zapeta-Calil was caught hours after allegedly setting the woman on fire when a group of high school students identified him as the suspect while riding the F train in downtown Brooklyn.
NYPD officers alerted MTA, which stopped the train eight stops north of the sighting at Herald Square in Midtown Manhattan. Police boarded the subway and arrested Zapeta-Calil as he sat in a crowded train carriage, as captured in dramatic videos shared online.
Police Commissioner Tisch praised the police response to the horrific incident during a press conference on Sunday evening as “an example of great technology and even greater old-fashioned police work.”
She added that detectives do not believe Zapeta-Calil and the victim knew each other, as she provided more details about the “depraved crime.”
“The suspect walked calmly towards the victim, who was sitting at the end of a subway train,” she said. “The suspect used what we believe was a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which was completely engulfed within seconds.
“Officers patrolling an upper floor of that station smelled and saw smoke and went to investigate. What they saw was a person standing in a train car, completely engulfed in flames.
“With the assistance of an MTA employee and a fire extinguisher, the flames were extinguished. Unfortunately, it was too late and the victim was pronounced (dead) on the spot.
Zapeta-Calil was caught hours after allegedly setting the woman on fire when a group of high school students identified him as the suspect while riding the F train in downtown Brooklyn.
“Unbeknownst to the responding officers, the suspect had remained at the scene and was sitting on a bench on a platform just outside the train car.
“The responding officers’ body-worn cameras provided a very clear, detailed image of the killer.”
Zapeta-Calil was wearing the same “gray hoodie, distinctive wool hat, paint-splattered pants and tan boots” when officers tracked him down, and he also had a lighter in his pocket, the NYPD said.
Fox News described him as a Guatemalan migrant. This has not been confirmed by the police.
Zapeta-Calil now faces murder and arson charges in connection with the woman’s death, which he claims was drunk and has no memory of.
Meanwhile, authorities continue to work to identify the victim.
Sources have told DailyMail.com that the delay is likely due to the dire state of her remains.
“She was burned, she was burned to death,” the official said.
EIt was understood the woman, who is believed to be homeless, had no identification on her at the time of the attack.
Zapeta-Calil is now charged with murder and arson over the woman’s death
The arson was the tenth homicide on the New York City subway system this year.
According to NYPD data, the subway system never recorded more than five murders in a single year between 1997 and 2019.
The wave of violence marks a sharp increase from pre-pandemic security levels.
Yet hours after the incident, Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul shamelessly posted photos bragging about the safety of the subway system.
“In March, I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains every day,” she said.
Hochul was referring to her efforts earlier this year to send National Guard members to help police randomly search passengers’ bags for weapons after a series of high-profile crimes on city trains.
The governor also deployed additional members to help patrol during the holiday season.
“Since deploying the @NationalGuardNY to support @NYPDnews and @MTA safety efforts and adding cameras to all subways, crime is down and ridership is up,” she added, without mentioning the woman who was set on fire.
Kathy Hochul took a beating from Republicans and Democrats for posting photos bragging about the safety of the New York City subway system hours after a woman was burned alive
At 3:40 PM on Sunday, hours after the story broke, New York Governor Hochul bizarrely posted photos of herself smiling with straphangers as she praised the safety of the subway lines.
Councilman Joe Borelli, the Republican leader of New York’s far-left City Council, shared the post with the comment: “Aged as milk.”
Hochul was also criticized by her own party, with Congressman Ritchie Torres — who had mounted a primary challenge to the governor in 2026 — blasting her for the post.
“Two hours ago, Kathy Hochul took a victory lap for making the subway ‘safer.’ She congratulates herself on the fact that on the same day in Queens, two subway passengers were stabbed (one in the face and one in the chest) and another was barbarically burned alive.”
Torres asked, “Has there ever been a more tone-deaf governor in the history of New York?”
Hochul appeared to make her own U-turn on the subway later in the day as she praised the NYPD for arresting the suspect.
“Make no mistake: one crime is one too many, even if crime in the metro is declining. We continue to dedicate staff and resources to making our subways safer.”