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Mayor Eric Adams says ‘our success is overshadowed’ by out-of-control subway crimes: ‘New Yorkers must…’
Mayor Eric Adams said that high-profile random attacks “overshadowed” New York City’s supposed successes in controlling subway crime during 2024.
Mayor Eric Adams said that high-profile random attacks “overshadowed” New York City’s supposed successes in controlling subway crime during 2024. Adams stressed that out-of-control subway crime must be curtailed during an end-of-year news conference.
‘Our success is overshadowed’
“We are doing the job on bringing down the numbers, but as I say over and over and I said in 2022, New Yorkers must feel safe,” he told reporters from City Hall, as reported by New York Post. “People are seeing and feeling what they’re reading. So, our success is overshadowed.”
Adams said that more officers will be sent onto subway platforms and into trains by newly installed NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. However, he did not specify how many additional cops would be sent, or when and where they would be deployed.
The mayor’s press conference came hours before a suspect pushed a straphanger in front of a train in Manhattan in a random attack. Meanwhile, investigators have also identified the woman who was set on fire a few days ago as Debrina Kawam, 57, of New Jersey. She was allegedly set ablaze by illegal Guatemalan immigrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, who is now facing first-degree murder charges in the shocking unprovoked attack.
In a chilling video that surfaced after the attack, Zapeta-Calil could be seen fanning the flames as Kawam’s body was on fire. He then calmly sat on a bench and watched the woman burn.
Amid the fears, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa returned to patrol the subways for the first time in many years. Adams warned Sliwa not to “overstep,” and asserted that the subway system only has six reported crimes a day. However, New York Post reported that NYPD crime statistics shows that violent crime has been rising on the rails, with Kawam’s brutal slaying tipping subway murders to 10 this year. This is double the number of murders in 2023 and also matching a 25-year high reached in 2022, according to data, the outlet noted.
