Violent Criminals Bring Holiday Crime to Transit System
Murderous Coney Island firebug arrested at 34th Street – Madman knifes two people in Grand Central Station and a female cop attacked at Port Authority
| 27 Dec 2024 | 04:43
Port Authority Police Department cops talking to a female traveler outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal, 8th Ave., June 18, 2024. Around the corner on 42nd Street, passed out junkies and myriad volatile, desperate characters await. (
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Felony violence found its way in the transit systems in midtown Manhattan at the height of the holiday season.
The first event, which has made horrific international headlines, occurred on the morning of Dec. 22, when 33-year-old Sebastian Zapeta-Calil allegedly set fire to a still unidentified homeless woman on the F train at the Stillwell Avenue stop in Coney Island. Video of the gut-wrenching crime quickly went viral, though most news outlets only published a censored, pixelated version of the poor woman aflame.
Zapeta-Calil, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who’d been deported once in 2018, was arrested later that day on a subway at 34th Street. The tip leading to his arrest came from a group of high school students who recognized Zapeta-Calil—who was wearing the same clothes he had on that morning—on their car.
Previously a resident of Samaritan Village Forbell, a homeless men’s shelter East New York, Brooklyn, Zapeta-Calil, has been charged with first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, and first-degree arson. He is being held without bail at North Infirmary Command in East Elmhurst St. It’s been reported that Zapeta-Calil was drunk and high on K2 and does not remember burning a woman alive.
Rookie Cop Suffers Port Authority Beat Down from Homeless Migrant
At approximately 6:45 a.m. on December 23, a rookie female cop working by the 8th Avenue entrance of the Port Authority bus terminal, was taunted and then attacked by a 30-year-old homeless migrant from Columbia, Juan Jose Valencia. After first taunting the cop, Valencia argued with officer, and also claimed he had a knife. When the cop—who was inexplicably working alone— moved to cuff and arrest him, Valencia tripped her, punched her and expressing “his disdain for female officers.”
After the cop called for backup, Valencia was arrested and charged with assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. The cop was hospitalized, while Valencia is currently locked up, at the Eric M. Taylor Center in East Elmhurst, Queens.
The Nightmare at Grand Central Station
On the night of Christmas Eve, a 28-year-old madman from Brooklyn, Joseph Sargent, viciously attacked two people with a knife. The first confrontation, which occurred at around 10:15 p.m. pitted Sargent against a 42-year-old man on the stairs of the Grand Central subway station. Drawing a knife, Sargent slashed the man’s wrist and then fled.
During his attempted escape, Sargent ran into a 26-year-old woman near the turnstiles, punching her in the back of the head and then stabbing in throat. Sargent again fled but witnesses on the scene alerted cops and the knife-wielding maniac was apprehended at the scene.
Both victims were taken to Bellevue Hospital. The man, still unidentified, lost a substantial amount of blood and required a tourniquet. The woman, Imani-Ciara Pizzaro, subsequently spoke about her ordeal to the New York Post.
“It’s not fair. We’re getting hurt everyday. And there’s nothing I can do. I can’t protect myself. I’ve almost been assaulted two other times in the last two months by mentally ill people. I try to ignore them but they don’t like being ignored either,” Pizarro said.
On Christmas Day, Sargent was charged with assault and attempted assault—it remains unclear why he wasn’t charged with attempted murder—and held on $150,00 bail.