Latest news with #DebrinaKawam
Daily Mail
06-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Why this dope smoking, privately educated Marxist - set to be New York's next mayor - could bankrupt the once proud city I call home: TOM LEONARD
The New York subway system has never exactly been a cosy place, but the past six months have seen two crimes take place there that appalled even its most hardened travellers. Three days before Christmas, a man approached a woman sleeping on a stationary F train at Coney Island, Brooklyn, at around 7.30am – and set her on fire. Surveillance video captured Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, an undocumented Guatemalan migrant, nonchalantly walking up to 57-year-old Debrina Kawam and using a cigarette lighter to ignite her clothes. Horrific CCTV footage showed Zapera-Calil – who told police he was a heavy drinker and smoker of a synthetic cannabis known as 'spice' or 'K2' – sitting on a station bench and watching as the woman burned to death.
New York Times
27-03-2025
- New York Times
16-Year-Old Is Charged With Hate Crimes in Gang Assault on Black Teen
A 16-year-old has been charged with several hate crimes in a gang attack on a Black teenager at a subway station this week, the police said. The attack happened at 8 a.m. Monday at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn, according to the police. The victim, 16, who has not been identified, was on his way to school when he was approached by a group of people, a police spokeswoman said. The group punched and kicked the boy, taunted him with racial slurs and removed one of his shoes, the spokeswoman said. On Wednesday the police arrested a 16-year-old boy in connection with the attack. He faces five criminal charges, including hate crime robbery and hate crime gang assault in the second degree. The police did not release the name or ethnicity of the boy who was charged. The case is being investigated by the Police Department's Hate Crimes Task Force. Hate crimes on the subway, in line with broader trends, are down. The number of hate crimes in the system dropped 32 percent in 2024 compared with the previous year, according to police statistics. Data shows that crime on the subway has declined overall, though perceptions of criminality remain persistent: Barely a majority of riders, 56 percent, said they felt safe on the subway, according to a survey released in January. That may be related to the increasingly random nature of subway crime and a series of high-profile violent episodes. The examples last year included a train conductor who was slashed late at night on an A train in Brooklyn in February. In December, at the same station in Coney Island where the teenager was attacked this week, Debrina Kawam, 57, died after being set on fire in a random early-morning attack on a parked train. Nine days later, a man pushed Joseph Lynskey onto the tracks in front of a train at the 18th Street subway station in Manhattan. He narrowly survived. People were pushed onto the tracks at least 25 times last year. (While riders might believe that young people are responsible for most violent crime, recent data finds that the average person charged with violence on the subway is 32 years old, compared with 24 nearly two decades ago.) Officials at the M.T.A. have acknowledged that the rise in random attacks is concerning. Last year 1,000 members of the National Guard began patrolling the subways, on orders from Gov. Kathy Hochul. They were supported by officers from the State Police and the transit authority. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch also assigned more than 200 police officers to patrol platforms and subway cars, and reassigned hundreds more from administrative jobs to transit patrols, which allowed the department to place two officers aboard every train that runs overnight, Commissioner Tisch said.
Yahoo
17-03-2025
- Yahoo
Man set on fire in Times Square: Police say victim may know attacker
NEW YORK - Police are searching for the attacker who set a man on fire in the middle of New York City's Times Square this weekend, and investigators say the victim may know who did it. What we know The attack happened around 4 a.m. Sunday morning near West 41st Street and 7th Avenue, hours before the start of New York City's United Half Marathon, where thousands of runners passed the scene of the crime. First responders were able to extinguish the flames, and the victim, age 45, was taken to the hospital in stable condition, police said. Video shows firefighters talking to the shirtless victim, who was covered in burns and ash. Law enforcement officials say they believe the victim, who they have not named, knows the man who set him on fire. They declined to comment further, saying the case remains under investigation. According to the New York Post sources, the victim and attacker "had been engaged in conversation at the food cart before the incident." The sources said the attacker used flammable liquid from the food cart to start the fire. Dig deeper In December, Debrina Kawam, 57, of New Jersey, died after being set on fire in a New York subway train. Sebastian Zapeta, 33, has pleaded not guilty to murder and arson charges in the Dec. 22 killing. Prosecutors say Zapeta set fire to Kawam while she was sleeping aboard a train stopped at a station in Brooklyn's Coney Island, then fanned the flames with a shirt and watched her burn from a subway station bench. The Source This article uses reporting from the NYPD, along with the New York Post and Associated Press.
Express Tribune
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Man set on fire in Times Square, New York; suspect still on the run
Listen to article A 45-year-old man was set on fire early on Sunday in the middle of New York's Times Square, sparking an investigation into the attack. Authorities have yet to determine whether the incident was random or targeted. The victim, severely burned and shirtless, was rushed to a nearby hospital and is currently in stable condition. According to police, the incident occurred around 4 a.m. when the man was found engulfed in flames. Investigators believe the assailant used a Patron tequila bottle to douse the victim with accelerant before setting him alight. The man, on fire, ran approximately 100 feet while seeking help. A bystander jumped out of a car and used a powder fire extinguisher to put out the flames, authorities said. The assailant fled the scene immediately after the attack, and authorities are actively searching for the suspect. While police have not confirmed whether the attack was random or specifically targeted, they continue to investigate the motives behind the assault. This attack follows a similar incident three months ago when a woman, 57-year-old Debrina Kawam, was fatally set on fire aboard a subway car. The tragedy shocked New Yorkers and renewed concerns about safety in the city. In that case, the suspect, 33-year-old Guatemalan migrant Sebastian Zapeta, was apprehended shortly after the incident. He was charged with murder and arson. New York's street violence has become a hot topic ahead of the mayoral elections later this year, with former state governor Andrew Cuomo calling the city 'out of control.' Cuomo has vowed to add 5,000 additional officers if elected. Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, however, argues that the issue is not a shortage of police but rather the impact of bail reforms signed by former Governor Cuomo. Statistics indicate that crime in New York has been trending lower in recent months. Despite this, the recent arson attacks and the rise in street violence continue to dominate public discourse, with safety in urban areas becoming a key issue for voters ahead of the elections.
