256
submitted 2 days ago by jordanlund@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

I've been trying to find out more about this because the story doesn't make any sense:

"he approached the sleeping woman, and then lit her on fire with what was believed to be a lighter. She added the victim's clothes became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds."

Clothing shouldn't just be flammable like that without some kind of accelerant.

https://www.cpsc.gov/Regulations-Laws--Standards/Statutes/Flammable-Fabrics-Act

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] 9point6@lemmy.world 128 points 2 days ago

Homeless people might use layers of all kinds of stuff to stay warm (think newspaper, etc as a common material), they also don't have the privilege of being able to wash their clothes very often. There could have been all sorts of things that compromise the flame retardancy of the clothing.

People don't typically expect to be set on fucking fire while they sleep, so it's not usually a risk to be concerned about.

The guy that did this is an absolute psycho

[-] ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 11 points 1 day ago

There's no evidence but I'm wondering if the dude came up to this sleeping woman, poured alcohol on her, then lit her up.

[-] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 55 points 1 day ago

Watch the police do as little as possible over this. She was the opposite of a CEO.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

In fairness, they did catch the guy pretty quickly.

[-] Rakonat@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago

They caught a guy, 3 days after after the killing in the surveillance state of a city that is NYC. And some compelling evidence they didn't catch the killer but just some guy that might have been in a watch list.

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 34 points 1 day ago

The suspect being an immigrant is the main reason this will be a multi-day national story. It's a fucked up way to kill someone, but even with that in mind, there's no way they'd make a national story out of a homeless woman being murdered in NYC except to serve a broader agenda.

[-] capital@lemmy.world 13 points 14 hours ago

Oh come off it. Burning someone alive is why it’ll be a multi-day national story.

How can you even say that given that the last multi-day story was a fare jumper being shot at and the one before that was someone being choked to death? Neither of which, to my knowledge, involved immigrants.

Keep stirring that race pot though.

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 hours ago

23 people were murdered by fire in 2023.

And "immigrant" isn't a race, but if you're playing ignorant about how this intertwines with current sociopolitical movements (just like the other two national-coverage murders you cite), this isn't a particularly surprising slip up. And if that wasn't enough jumping to "stirring the race pot" paints a pretty clear picture.

[-] pyre@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

yeah them gosh darn immigrants comin'ere stealin' our murder stories

fucks sake

[-] x00z@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago

Well, there's also the burning person on a subway.

[-] underwire212@lemm.ee 8 points 1 day ago

Yeah I mean how often does that happen? Like legitimately?

[-] x00z@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

I don't know. But I'm sure it doesn't happen so much that it would be ignored by the news.

[-] caboose2006@lemmy.ca 48 points 1 day ago

So we're doing terrorism charges for all homicides in NYC now right? Right?

[-] AriesAspect@lemmy.world 65 points 2 days ago

So we don't know anything about this thug? Burning homeless people on the subway?!?! Republicans prolly prepping him to be a national celebrity

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 39 points 2 days ago

From Guatamala though, so expect the usual "alien" hate.

[-] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago

Fuck this guy, idc where the fuck he's from. Wildly fucked up.

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

I'd rather hate the lack of mental health and support systems available. If it was just a random act of violence, he's the suspect is just mentally unwell and you can't really stop them without structural changes. It's not hard to find articles and articles about homeless people attacking random people with bricks in NYC.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

That plays into Trumps whole "they're sending us their criminals and emptying their asylums" bullshit though. :(

Agreed that mental health care should be a guarantee just like "health care" because, well, it is health care.

But that won't be the narrative from the "deport them all" crowd.

[-] lnxtx@feddit.nl 30 points 2 days ago

No press briefing with the chief of investigators, NYPD?

[-] ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net 9 points 1 day ago

In the words of our boys in blue in Seattle... She had limited value.

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Without context, this audio is horrifying and has no place in a civil society.

I bet its even worse with context.

[-] ccunning@lemmy.world 28 points 2 days ago

I don’t know anything about this but in my misspent youth kids would take the regulator off adjustable disposable butane lighters and you could light the lighter and then basically pour the butane out of the lighter.

Something like that could surely ignite clothing and appear to be “just” a lighter.

load more comments (16 replies)
[-] Machinist@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago

I seem to remember a string of copycat attacks where lighter fluid or gas was sprayed inside a kiosk that contained a cashier or person taking tickets. Think there were several deaths.

Expect that an accelerant like gas or lighter fluid was used in this case. Doesn't take much.

Monstrous thing to do.

[-] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago

Aren't winter jackets very flammable?

[-] tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Protip from a fire performer

Buy a boiled wool peacoat. You can put out a small fire with it. Thrift stores usually have em for like $20

[-] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 day ago

Thanks! Wool really is a great material.

I've recently been enlightened to the benefits of merino wool. Wish it was more affordable.

[-] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

No, I think they're legally required to be self-extinguishing.

[-] desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 14 hours ago

Thankfully used clothes don't have to comply with the "woke" agenda, nor do hand-made clothes.

[-] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 0 points 12 hours ago
[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Pretty sure they were using "woke" ironically.

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2024
256 points (97.8% liked)

News

23649 readers
2623 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS