‘Daniel Penny effect’ causes bystanders in New York not to step in to help: critics

Critics are decrying the so-called “Daniel Penny effect” after several passersby and even police officers appeared to watch helplessly as an innocent woman burned to death in a subway car in New York City.

The heinous crime was allegedly committed by an illegal immigrant who targeted the sleeping woman. Sources tell Fox News that the woman could not be identified days after the scare because she suffered such severe burns.

Investigators also believe she was homeless and are working to locate possible family members.

SANCTUARY CITY NEW YORK COMES TO DRASTIC CHANGE AFTER ILLEGAL migrant allegedly burned woman alive

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 and arson.

Sebastian Zapeta, accused of setting a woman on fire in a New York City subway, appears in court on Tuesday, December 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Curtis Means via Pool)

Surveillance video of Sunday’s attack showed the suspect walking toward the woman, who was sitting motionless and possibly sleeping, on a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station, then setting her on fire .

It also notes that the address Zapeta gave to police matches that of a New York City substance abuse support center.

There was reportedly a man there who lived in the same shelter as Zapeta and smoked K2, a synthetic marijuana that can contain many different chemicals and drugs, “every day,” the New York Post reported.

The man also claimed that Zapeta often smoked, drank and then “lost his temper.”

The suspect accused of burning a woman to death on the New York subway is a previously deported illegal immigrant

Sebastian Zapeta, accused of setting a woman on fire in a New York City subway, appears in court on Tuesday, December 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Curtis Means via Pool)

Zapeta is a previously deported Guatemalan migrant who was detained by Border Patrol and subsequently deported by the Trump administration in June 2018 after crossed illegally into Sonoita, Arizona, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Marie Ferguson previously told Fox News, adding that Zapeta later returned to the U.S. illegally.

Curtis Sliwa, founder and local activist of Guardian Angels, told Fox News Digital that this recent act of violence on a New York subway was due to the “Daniel Penny effect.”

Describing the chaotic scene according to witness statements, Sliwa said that no one helped the woman, but that people filmed the whole ordeal but did not cooperate with law enforcement.

The NYPD arrested a migrant who allegedly set a woman on fire on the subway and watched her burn

Daniel Penny arrives at Manhattan Supreme Court on Friday, November 22, 2024. Penny, a Marine veteran, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2023 death of Jordan Neely on a New York subway. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

“And I think that’s because of the chilling effect that the Daniel Penny situation had on the entire city. It wasn’t a racially divisive case … but I found that people just don’t want to get involved,” Sliwa said.

“You don’t want to be, as I call it, penetrated, which is, God forbid, dragged to court, prosecuted and then having your life turned upside down.”

Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran, was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter 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 fatal encounter with Neely, who was under the influence of drugs and threatening to kill people on an F train in Manhattan when the 26-year-old architecture student grabbed him Headlock from behind.

At the time of his death, Neely also had an active arrest warrant and a lengthy criminal history. He had schizophrenia and a drug problem.

Sliwa said this was similar to Neely’s case and that sources said Zapeta smoked up to $30 worth of K2 a day and also drank a lot of cheap vodka, which he said was a “recipe for chaos.”

“No one interfered, no police on this train. When the police responded.

Retired NYPD inspector and Fox News contributor Paul Mauro also weighed in on the incident, saying a source told him an officer was looking for a fire extinguisher and police responded as quickly as they could under the circumstances.

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“Look, you can never completely cover the subway, no matter what anyone says. And given the size of the New York subway system, the transit officers do a great job,” Mauro said.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul was criticized on social media Sunday after touting how safe New York’s subway system has become thanks to her efforts and claiming that crime on Big Apple trains has dropped since the National Guard deployed in March had used.

On the same day, the woman was burned alive in the subway. Fox News Digital reached out to Hochul’s office but did not receive a response.

Alexis McAdams of Fox News, Michael Ruiz of Fox News Digital and Lorraine Taylor contributed to this report.

Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Story tips and ideas can be sent to [email protected]