Shocking footage has surfaced showing police officers walking by a woman who was burning to death on a New York City subway, with her alleged killer casually observing from a nearby bench.
Disturbing videos depict a man, reportedly identified as Sebastin Zapeta, a 33-year-old migrant from Guatemala according to Fox News, sitting on the platform at Stillwell Avenue in Brooklyn. He is alleged to have set ablaze an unidentified passenger who was sleeping on the F train just before 7:30 a.m. on Sunday.
The accused, Zapeta, who is currently under custody, is captured in one video clip fanning the flames as the victim, engulfed in fire, stands by the subway car exit. Shockingly, other commuters are seen recording the tragic incident on their mobile devices.
Meanwhile, an NYPD officer walks by and appears to wave his hand over the scene in exasperation, but does not intervene to detain the suspect or help the victim.
NYPD Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told a press conference that officers who responded were not aware the suspect was on the scene at the time.
DailyMail.com has asked for comment on why cops appear to have strolled past the burning woman several times without helping. Police have not yet charged Zapeta or identified the victim, who did not know each other.
Shocked social media users have blasted the police response – describing the behavior of cops caught on camera as ‘cowardly’ and ‘shameful’ while calling for them to be named or fired.
‘Police officer walks by. Doesn’t take his jacket off to smother the flames. Not his problem. Guess he doesn’t get paid too much. Can we find out who he is? His behavior is shameful,’ one person wrote on X.
‘I don’t know which is more wild. The fact she’s on fire and just standing there, or the guy who did it and is just sitting watching, the guy recording or the cop that just walked on by like all was normal,’ another said.
‘Many people freeze up in these situations, and some are just scared of getting hurt. The Police on the other hand, are there to protect and preserve life,’ another person chimed in.
‘They stood there and did nothing. One of them even got so fed up with the situation he waved his hands as if to say “I can’t be bothered with this anymore” and stormed off, as if an innocent woman dying was an inconvenience to him.’
‘The cop should go to jail for not helping. This is the oath they take. Coward,’ one person said, while another agreed, ‘that cop needs to be fired.’
Zapeta eventually boarded the F train again, and he was flagged by high schoolers at York Street Station in downtown Brooklyn who recognized him from police pictures distributed on Sunday.
NYPD officers alerted MTA, who stopped the train eight stops north from the sighting at Herald Square in Midtown Manhattan. Cops boarded the subway and detained Zapeta as he sat in a busy carriage, as caught in dramatic videos shared online.
Police Commissioner Tisch praised the police response to the heinous incident as ‘an example of great technology and even greater old fashioned police work’ during a press conference on Sunday night.
She added that detectives do not believe Zapeta and the victim knew each other, while giving more details about the ‘depraved crime’.
‘The suspect calmly walked up to the victim, who was in a seated position at the end of a subway car,’ she said. ‘The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds.
‘Officers who were on patrol on an upper level of that station smelled and saw smoke and went to investigate. What they saw was a person standing inside a train car, fully engulfed in flames.
‘With the help of an MTA employee and a fire extinguisher, the flames were put out. Unfortunately it was too late, and the victim was pronounced (dead) on the scene.
‘Unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect had stayed on the scene and was seated on a bench on a platform just outside the train car.
‘The body-worn cameras on the responding officers produced a very clear, detailed look at the killer.’
Zapeta was wearing the same ‘gray hoodie, distinct 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 police.
