New York City’s subway system has reached a disturbing 25-year high for murders, following the barbaric burning of a woman on a subway car over the weekend.
The city’s transit system recorded its tenth murder of 2024 – double the number from last year – when an illegal migrant allegedly set fire to a sleeping woman in a Brooklyn train on Sunday.
From 1997 to 2019, the subway system never recorded more than five murders in a single year, according to NYPD data.
The surge in violence marks a stark increase from pre-pandemic safety levels.
Now, Democrat leaders are facing mounting criticism over their handling of both the crime and migrant crises.
The shocking statistic comes after Sunday’s horrifying incident, when Guatemalan migrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, allegedly used a lighter to set aflame a sleeping passenger’s clothing.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the alleged killing ‘one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit.’
It was just one of a handful violent acts during a bloody weekend on New York City subways.
Also on Sunday, a 76-year-old woman was viciously attacked on a Manhattan platform, while a 27-year-old man was beaten in an unprovoked assault.
A day earlier, two young men were shot by a pair of young suspects at a Brooklyn subway station, and on Friday an 83-year-old man was pummeled after accidentally tripping over his attacker’s leg.
Five migrant men also attempted to rob a 69-year-old passenger, leading to a fight that left one dead and another injured, sources told the New York Post.
The elderly passenger, who reportedly acted in self-defense, was taken into custody but will not face charges.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul took a lashing from Republicans and Democrats for posting photos bragging about the safety of the New York City subway system hours after the woman was burned alive on a train.
At 3:40pm Sunday, hours after the story broke, Hochul bizarrely posted photos of herself smiling with straphangers as she praised the safety of the subway lines.
‘In March, I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day,’ she said.
Hochul was referencing her efforts earlier this year to send National Guard members to help police conduct random searches of riders’ bags for weapons following a series of high-profile crimes on city trains.
The governor recently 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 subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up,’ she added, making no mention of the woman who was set on fire.
Councilman Joe Borelli, the GOP leader of the far left-leaning New York City Council, shared the post with the remark: ‘Aged like milk.’
Hochul was slammed by her own party as well, with Congressman Ritchie Torres – who has teased a primary challenge to the governor in 2026 – destroying her for the post.
‘Two hours ago, Kathy Hochul took a victory lap for making subways “safer.” She congratulates herself on the same day two subway riders were stabbed in Queens (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 do her own U-turn on the subway later in the day when praising the NYPD for arresting the suspect.
‘Make no mistake: any crime is one too many, even with subway crime going down. We are continuing to surge personnel and resources to make our subways safer.’
As Torres noted, the case marked the second fatality on a New York subway Sunday.
At 12:35 a.m., police responded to an emergency call for an assault in progress at the 61st Street-Woodside Station in Queens and found a 37-year-old man with a stab wound to his torso and a 26-year-old man with multiple slashes throughout his body.
The older man was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital while the younger man was in stable condition, police said.
The number of killings on the subway this year matches the 25-year high set in 2022.