By Alex P. Vidal
“Little crimes breed big crimes. You smile at little crimes and then big crimes blow your head off.” —Terry Pratchett
FILIPINOS riding on the New York City subway have been told to stay awake and not to sleep during the trip or risk being set on fire like what happened to a 57-year-old woman who died after her clothes were set on fire as she slept inside a train car at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station on Dec. 22, 2024.
“Huwag matulog kung ayaw mong masunog (Don’t fall asleep if you don’t want to be burned),” a middle-aged Filipino woman reminded her teenager male companion while they were on E train from Queen’s Jackson Heights 74 Station to Lexington 53rd Avenue Station in Manhattan January 4.
“At palagi kang tumingin sa kaliwat’s kanan bago ka umupo (Always look to your left and right before taking a seat).”
“Kahit napupuyat ka tiisin mo nalang. Delikado ang mga (subway) train ngayon maraming sira ulo na bigla nalang aatake (even if you are sleepy, just continue to stay awake. It’s not safe inside the trains nowadays because a lot of crazy people attack passengers randomly),” remarked another Filipino passenger Marlon Auto Doronila, who took the 6 Train on his way to Bellevue Hospital in to Downtown Manhattan on December 24, 2024.
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The woman passenger’s warning to her companion came two weeks after subway passenger Sebastian Zapeta, 33, used a shirt to fan the flames from a lighter, according to investigators.
Zapeta, an illegal immigrant, has been charged with one count of first degree murder, three counts of second degree murder and one count of first degree arson related to the attack.
“These are significant counts. Murder in the first degree carries the possibility of life without parole. It’s the most serious statute in New York state law, and my office is very confident about the evidence in this case and our ability to hold Zapeta accountable for his dastardly deeds,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a criminal complaint.
“This was a malicious deed. A sleeping, vulnerable woman on our subway system. This act surprised many New Yorkers as they were getting ready to celebrate the holidays,” Gonzalez said. “I want to thank the grand jurors in this case. You know, right around the holiday to have to see the video and the images of a woman set on fire is, very, it’s very hard to deal with.”
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Zapeta waived his court appearance and was scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 7, when the indictment was officially unsealed.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Zapeta entered the U.S. illegally from Guatemala in 2018 and was deported, but he reentered sometime afterwards.
The woman was named as Debrina Kawam, 57, of Toms River, New Jersey, the New York Police Department said.
Kawam was sleeping on a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn on the morning of Dec. 22 when she was set ablaze allegedly by Zapeta, an undocumented 33-year-old Guatemalan citizen, according to police.
The suspect allegedly “approached and lit the victim on fire” with a lighter, police said.
Police officers in the area at the time smelled smoke and went to the train to investigate, where they found the woman standing inside the car “fully engulfed in flames,” the NYPD said. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
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VERTIGO LINKED TO OSTEOPOROSIS. In a study of 441 men and women, those with osteoporosis were three times more likely to have benign positional vertigo (BPV), an inner ear disorder that causes dizziness, than those with normal bone density.
HOT FLASHY REMEDY. When 454 postmenopausal women who suffered from moderate to severe hot flashes used estradiol (Evamist)–a spray-on product containing estrogen–or a placebo spray for 12 weeks, the estradiol group had an average of eight fewer hot flashes per day, compared with an average of four fewer hot flashes daily for the placebo group.
A SINGLE STOOL TEST CAN DETECT CANCERS of the digestive tract. Currently, routine screening is done only on the colon–which means that many pancreatic, stomach, gallbladder and other gastrointestinal (GI) cancers are discovered only at an advanced stage.
POTASSIUM PROMOTES HEARTH HEALTH. In a study of 2,974 men and women, those with the highest potassium-to-sodium ratios in their urine were 50 percent less likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those with the lowest ratios. Theory: Combining a higher intake of potassium with a lower intake of sodium seems to be more effective than either alone.
(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Ed)
