3mo ago

Woman dies after being set on fire on NYC subway; Person of interest taken into custody, police say

www.cbsnews.com Woman dies after being set on fire on NYC subway; Person of interest taken into custody, police say

A woman died after she was set on fire aboard the New York City subway on an F train in Brooklyn, police say.

I've been trying to find out more about this because the story doesn't make any sense:

"he approached the sleeping woman, and then lit her on fire with what was believed to be a lighter. She added the victim's clothes became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds."

Clothing shouldn't just be flammable like that without some kind of accelerant.

https://www.cpsc.gov/Regulations-Laws--Standards/Statutes/Flammable-Fabrics-Act

73 comments

Homeless people might use layers of all kinds of stuff to stay warm (think newspaper, etc as a common material), they also don't have the privilege of being able to wash their clothes very often. There could have been all sorts of things that compromise the flame retardancy of the clothing.
People don't typically expect to be set on fucking fire while they sleep, so it's not usually a risk to be concerned about.
The guy that did this is an absolute psycho
- There's no evidence but I'm wondering if the dude came up to this sleeping woman, poured alcohol on her, then lit her up.

So we don't know anything about this thug? Burning homeless people on the subway?!?! Republicans prolly prepping him to be a national celebrity
- From Guatamala though, so expect the usual "alien" hate.
  
  Fuck this guy, idc where the fuck he's from. Wildly fucked up.
  
  I'd rather hate the lack of mental health and support systems available. If it was just a random act of violence, he's the suspect is just mentally unwell and you can't really stop them without structural changes. It's not hard to find articles and articles about homeless people attacking random people with bricks in NYC.

Watch the police do as little as possible over this. She was the opposite of a CEO.
- In fairness, they did catch the guy pretty quickly.
  
  They caught a guy, 3 days after after the killing in the surveillance state of a city that is NYC. And some compelling evidence they didn't catch the killer but just some guy that might have been in a watch list.

So we're doing terrorism charges for all homicides in NYC now right? Right?

The suspect being an immigrant is the main reason this will be a multi-day national story. It's a fucked up way to kill someone, but even with that in mind, there's no way they'd make a national story out of a homeless woman being murdered in NYC except to serve a broader agenda.
- Well, there's also the burning person on a subway.
  
  Yeah I mean how often does that happen? Like legitimately?
- Oh come off it. Burning someone alive is why it’ll be a multi-day national story.
  How can you even say that given that the last multi-day story was a fare jumper being shot at and the one before that was someone being choked to death? Neither of which, to my knowledge, involved immigrants.
  Keep stirring that race pot though.
  
  23 people were murdered by fire in 2023.
  And "immigrant" isn't a race, but if you're playing ignorant about how this intertwines with current sociopolitical movements (just like the other two national-coverage murders you cite), this isn't a particularly surprising slip up. And if that wasn't enough jumping to "stirring the race pot" paints a pretty clear picture.
- yeah them gosh darn immigrants comin'ere stealin' our murder stories
  fucks sake

No press briefing with the chief of investigators, NYPD?
- In the words of our boys in blue in Seattle... She had limited value.
  
  Without context, this audio is horrifying and has no place in a civil society.
  I bet its even worse with context.

I don’t know anything about this but in my misspent youth kids would take the regulator off adjustable disposable butane lighters and you could light the lighter and then basically pour the butane out of the lighter.
Something like that could surely ignite clothing and appear to be “just” a lighter.
- Oh, yeah, that makes a ton more sense...
  
  Nah, butane evaporates almost immediately at ambient temp/pressure.

I seem to remember a string of copycat attacks where lighter fluid or gas was sprayed inside a kiosk that contained a cashier or person taking tickets. Think there were several deaths.
Expect that an accelerant like gas or lighter fluid was used in this case. Doesn't take much.
Monstrous thing to do.

Aren't winter jackets very flammable?
- Protip from a fire performer
  Buy a boiled wool peacoat. You can put out a small fire with it. Thrift stores usually have em for like $20
  
  Thanks! Wool really is a great material.
  I've recently been enlightened to the benefits of merino wool. Wish it was more affordable.
- No, I think they're legally required to be self-extinguishing.
  
  Most jackets today are cheap garbage shipped from china.
  
  Thankfully used clothes don't have to comply with the "woke" agenda, nor do hand-made clothes.

It's pretty well known that polyester and other artificial fibers are very flammable, no?
- Poly will melt rather than burn and generally self extinguishes. That's what makes this so weird:
  https://youtu.be/stTUA5ckhc8
  
  Polyester propagates pretty easily if the fire is big enough. It only "self extinguishes" sometimes when the gloop of melted plastic falls off, or if the flame is small. But a large flame will for sure spread, especially if it's a thin and airy fabric or a blend.
  (Am fire performer, I frequently light this shit on fire for safety demos)
  
  Maybe something flammable had been spilled on the clothing.
  The only problem with making clothing flame retardant is that is usually done with nasty chemicals that give cancer or other conditions.

That is what she gets for not being a POS CEO.

- Questioning the physics of the story as reported, not the victim. Clearly they're absolutely blameless.
  Feels like something is missing, either in the reporting or from the cops.
  
  Wow, I have no idea how you saw that because I deleted it within seconds of writing it when I realized what you meant.

My boss ask why i dont go to NYC anymore….
- Because this person was lit on fire?
  
  Because its a shit show and it smells like garbage weed and food all together.

73 comments