Critics say bystanders stood by as illegal migrant burns woman to death on NYC subway: ‘Daniel Penny effect’

New Yorkers were up in arms Monday, a day after an illegal Guatemalan immigrant allegedly burned a sleeping straphanger to death aboard a Brooklyn subway train — while bystanders did nothing.

Chilling video footage of the incident shows at least three gawkers — one of whom was seen filming the shocking fatal fire on his phone — and an NYPD officer standing outside the subway car as flames engulfed the unidentified victim after the Sunday morning attack.

“No one came to her aid,” said Guardian Angel founder and community activist Curtis Sliwa. “There is no doubt that people do not want to get involved. It’s the Daniel Penny factor. These are frozen people. They say to themselves, ‘I don’t want to get stuck like Penny.

“People should have run over to the woman on fire. They did nothing. They didn’t say anything,” Sliwa said, calling bystanders’ reluctance to intervene “the Daniel Penny effect.”

Penny, a 26-year-old ex-Marine, was charged last year with murder for fatally strangling vagrant Jordan Neely after Neely aggressively confronted frightened passengers on a Manhattan subway car.

Penny was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide charges earlier this month.

But according to some observers, his legal ordeal is giving would-be subway good Samaritans pause.

“People are reluctant to get in the middle of criminal activity,” Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar, a Brooklyn resident, told The Post on Monday. “There are many New York City residents who think twice about taking action because they don’t believe they have the support of our Democratic elected officials. They are wary of revolving-door justice.

“This murder should never have happened in the first place,” he said.

Meanwhile, the head of the state Senate committee that oversees the MTA said Monday that he wants answers from the transit agency over deficiencies revealed by the incident.

“We’re asking for an overview of what happened, how it happened and why it took so long (to make an arrest),” state Sen. Leroy Comrie (D-Queens), who chairs the committee, told The Post Monday.

“Because of the actions of previous administrations, it’s a mess out there,” Comrie said. “There are too many (mentally ill) people who should be in facilities who are out on the streets. Some of these people have to be restricted in their movements.”

The lawmaker spoke a day after a migrant, identified by federal immigration authorities as 33-year-old Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, was charged in connection with the horrific incident on a Coney Island subway train.

Disturbing video captured a man identified as Zapeta-Calil calmly sitting on a bench at the station while the woman burned. He left the scene, but police caught up with him later when he got off a subway train at the 34th Street-Herald Square station in Manhattan.

Sources said charges are pending and prosecutors in Brooklyn are awaiting the results of an autopsy — which is complicated by the burned condition of the victims’ bodies — to determine the cause of death.

But the incident has raised several questions, including why it took police so long to get to the burning woman, why Zapeta-Calil was allowed to leave the scene after police arrived, and why the required fire extinguishers on the subway car were not used. sources said.

A former state police officer took aim at Gov. Kathy Hochul and raised concerns about the state-run transit agency.

“We all witnessed the horrific tragedy on the F train,” former Brooklyn state assemblyman Dov Hikind said on X. “I’m calling on Governor Hochul, I’m begging and begging you to resign now.

“This job is beyond you. Unfortunately, there’s no recall in New York, so I’m asking you to do the right thing,” Hikind said. “You took pictures the day before the tragedy and told New York how safe the subways were. How pathetic.

“You may mean well, but being governor just isn’t for you. Get out of the way.”