On December 22, a woman sleeping on the New York City subway was set on fire and killed. The person who is accused of the murder was a 33-year-old is from Guatemala and entered the U.S. illegally.
Headline USA reports:
New York Police announced Tuesday they’ve identified the woman who died on Dec. 22 after being set on fire while inside a New York subway train as a 61-year-old from New Jersey.
The woman, Debrina Kawam, had a Toms River, New Jersey, address, according to NYPD.
…New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that Kawam had a “brief stint in our homeless shelter system” and that authorities had been in contact with her next of kin. He did not say when Kawam was in the homeless system.
“Hearts go out to the family, a horrific incident to have to live through,” Adams said at an unrelated press briefing.
“It impacts on how New Yorkers feel,” he continued. “But it really reinforces what I’ve been saying: People should not be living on our subway system, they should be in a place of care. No matter where she lived that should not have happened.”
I have questions. Was the murderer being provided with housing and food in one of New York City’s hotels? Was he being sheltered while an American citizen was not? I realize that the homeless problem will be difficult to solve, but I believe it can be solved. Obviously the current homeless shelter system in New York City did not protect this woman. A lot of homelessness has to do with mental illness or drug use. You can’t clean up a drug user unless he wants to clean up, but you can take him off the streets with some sort of tiny house or place to sleep. Many of the homeless can be helped through mental health services. We need to find a way to put them in places where they can get help and get used to living in rooms or houses and find their way back into society. The current level of homelessness in America should not be acceptable to anyone.