Sanctuary city New York pressured to make drastic change after illegal migrant allegedly burns woman alive

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Critics speculate why bystanders failed to save woman burning on NYC subway: ‘Daniel Penny factor’

Former DHS deputy assistant secretary Jonathan Fahey reacts to news that the illegal migrant arrested for setting a woman on fire on a NYC subway was once deported and the ‘Daniel Penny effect’ that may have prevented some from jumping in to help.

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In an unprecedented public attack that quickly spread across social media, a woman was lit on fire and burned to death on a subway train in Brooklyn, New York, on Sunday. The suspect arrested in connection to her heinous death is a previously deported migrant from Guatemala, as calls to end New York City’s sanctuary policies enacted under former Mayor Bill de Blasio are escalating.

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, as well as first-degree arson.

Zapeta was apprehended by Border Patrol and subsequently deported by the Trump administration in June 2018 after he crossed illegally into Sonoita, Arizona, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson Marie Ferguson told Fox News, adding that Zapeta later re-entered the U.S. illegally. 

SUSPECT ACCUSED OF BURNING WOMAN TO DEATH ON NYC SUBWAY IS PREVIOUSLY DEPORTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT

NYPD officers escort a suspect wanted for a homicide on the F Train in Coney Island from a precinct in Lower Manhattan on Sunday, Dececember 22, 2024. (Courtesy: G.N. Miller/New York Post)

“It’s beyond time to end sanctuary-city policies in New York,” the New York Post editorial board wrote, adding that Zapeta “re-entered the country and, at some point thereafter, headed for New York, where local policies guarantee shelter, food and other taxpayer-funded aid to migrants and forbid cops from working with ICE to deport even the ones who commit new crimes.”

“In other words, he went where he’d be most able to do anything and everything he wanted, without much regard for the law or fear of consequences,” the board continued.   

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

NYPD ARRESTS MIGRANT WHO ALLEGEDLY SET WOMAN ON FIRE ON SUBWAY TRAIN, WATCHED HER BURN TO DEATH

Police investigate at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn after a woman aboard a subway car was set on fire and died in New York, United States on December 22, 2024. Police believe the woman had been sleeping aboard the train when a man approached her and set her on fire. She was pronounced dead at the scene. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a press conference on Sunday evening, adding that the female victim was in a seated position. “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.”

The suspect then stayed on the scene and sat on a bench just outside the train car, as officers and a transit worker extinguished the flames. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

After three high school-aged New Yorkers called 911, the suspect was arrested just hours after the attack while riding on the same subway line. He was found with a lighter in his pocket, according to Tisch. 

VENEZUELAN GANG MEMBERS LINKED TO VIOLENT APARTMENT TAKEOVER ARRESTED IN NEW YORK CITY

Police investigates the scene where a woman died after being lit on fire by a man aboard an MTA subway train as she slept at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York, United States on Sunday, December 22, 2024. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“People are tired of the revolving door where people are constantly committing violent crimes and back on our streets…it is not a safe haven for those who are committing criminal acts,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told Fox News last week in a discussion about the city’s sanctuary policies. “Violent individuals should not remain in our country.” 

Adams is the first big city mayor to sit down with incoming border czar Tom Homan against the wishes of his own city leaders, saying he will work with the Trump administration to deport migrant criminals from his city. 

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This month and prior to Sunday’s attack, Adams said there has been a 22-week drop in migrant arrivals into New York City, allowing for the closure of many of the migrant shelters used for housing, though the city has seen more than 225,000 migrants arrive since 2022, a surge that coincided with a spike at the southern border. 

Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report. 

Mollie Markowitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital. Email tips to mollie.markowitz@fox.com. She joined Fox in 2019 and made her way from producing live news coverage to true-crime documentaries at Fox Nation. She has interviewed Ted Bundy survivors, the children of notorious serial killers, survivor Lisa McVey, members of law enforcement and families impacted by traumatic crime.Currently, she covers national crime stories for Fox News Digital. You can follow Mollie on LinkedIn.