A week after a woman was burned to death at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station, the Guardian Angels were at the Brooklyn transit hub on Dec. 29 to announce the return of their volunteer security patrols — and call attention to the surge of homeless individuals in the system.
Curtis Sliwa, who founded the Guardian Angels in 1979, said Sunday he would have 150 of his volunteer members on regular duty throughout the subway system, starting out at hubs like Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue and then dispersing out throughout the subways.
The announcement came in the wake of the Dec. 23 arson attack at the station where a woman, believed to be homeless, was deliberately burned alive on board a stationary F train in what appeared to be a random attack that shocked and horrified New Yorkers.
But Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue, being the last stop for the F train, has become a winter destination for homeless New Yorkers riding through the system. When amNewYork Metro visited on Dec. 29, we observed numerous homeless men and women riding in the subway cars, some asleep on the benches with bare feet and/or garbage strewn around them.
During their first day of patrols, Guardian Angels at the Coney Island stop came upon a woman vomiting and begging for help. A member dialed 911, and another member provided her with water.
The incident proved too much for one of the Angels who stepped off the train and became emotional, tears streaming down her face. Several individuals stayed with the sick woman as the patrol continued.
Some of the unhoused individuals barely noticed Sliwa and his crew when they jostled them to get their attention. Yet Sliwa said he and his group have their attention; he went on to criticize the city for doing “nothing” to abate the homelessness situation in the subways and provide relief.
“It’s a moving homeless hotel of emotionally disturbed persons, of homeless people who live on the subway. The city does nothing about it, there’s no intervention, there’s no wellness check,” Sliwa said. ”I’ve never seen the subways this bad, not even in 1979 when we began the Guardian Angels. But the problem then was gangs. Now, they call it random attacks.”
Questioning subway security
In the wake of the Dec. 22 deadly arson attack at Coney Island, Sliwa said he and the Guardian Angels were inundated with requests for them to patrol the subways. He declared that his team, decked out in red jackets and hats, will be keeping keen eyes on the system but also distributing water to those in need and looking out for anyone experiencing medical episodes.
As train after train pulled into the station Sunday morning with more homeless individuals on board, Sliwa blasted the local government for failing to act — charging that there were no cops on the platform one week removed from the shocking murder.
“Stop with the nonsense of the analytics crime is down — what a joke,” Sliwa told amNewYork Metro. “We’re going to show the city and the state what they should be doing. And maybe we can shame them into action, shame them into doing something instead of just talking about it.”
Despite Sliwa’s statements Sunday, City Hall has previously acted to reduce the homeless population in the subways and provide support. In February 2022, Mayor Eric Adams launched a “Subway Safety Plan” that aimed to increase the number of police officers into the system along with intervention teams to provide support to homeless individuals.
When crime increased earlier in 2024, the NYPD surged hundreds of officers into the subway system daily to crack down on crimes like fare evasion and instill a sense of security. Gov. Kathy Hochul supplemented that surge with an influx of hundreds of National Guard troops to assist with security checks.
The end result, according to the most recent NYPD figures, has been a 6.1% decrease in transit crime year-to-date, with an average of six crimes in the system per day — 2,095 crimes over the first 350 days of 2024.
Mayor Adams’ Press Secretary Kayla Mamelak pushed back against Sliwa’s comments, stating that hizzoner has steadily placed more NYPD officers into the subway while also implying that Sliwa’s announcement was merely a publicity stunt.
“Mayor Adams is committed to improving the lives of New Yorkers, which is why he frequently rides the subway to speak directly with everyday riders about how we can make it safer. The mayor surged 1,000 police officers per day into the subways, has brought down overall crime, and transit crime, delivering real action — not theatrics — but he knows there’s still more work to be done. Unlike others who only seek attention with meaningless stunts, Mayor Adams remains focused on real solutions,” Mamelak said.
amNewYork Metro reached out to the Governor’s office for comment and is awaiting a response.
While Sliwa is promoting the renewed safeguarding as an effort to aid both commuters and the unhoused and mentally ill, the Guardian Angels have previously come under fire for acting rashly and violently.
In February, during an interview on Fox News in Times Square, Sliwa’s team could be seen roughing up a man they misidentified as a migrant, who police later said was, in fact, a man from the Bronx.
Still, Sliwa says he and his peers are doing what the mayor and the governor are not — condemning authorities for immediately jumping in and attempting to put the fire out.
“You can see she was right in the door, all lit up, didn’t even bother to intervene,” Sliwa said. “Nobody dropped her to the floor, nobody rolled her over, nobody tried to put out the fire.”
Police arrested 33-year-old Sebastian Zapeta-Calil for setting the woman ablaze as she slept. Cops say Zapeta-Calil, a migrant from Guatemala, attempted to fan the flames with his jacket.
