NY - Felix Najera, 49, homeless, dies after being set ablaze, NYC, 5 Oct 2007

Taximom

Former Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2005
Messages
16,234
Reaction score
133
Cops seek teens in homeless man torching

http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-home1006,0,1369131.story?coll=amny_home_class

By Maria Alvarez 6:24 PM EDT, October 5, 2007 A slew of detectives swept through East Harlem's 103th street yesterday asking residents to help catch three teens suspected of setting Felix Najera, a homeless man, on fire with a cigarette lighter.

Najera, a 48-year-old Mexican immigrant, suffered burns over 40 percent of his body including his face, chest, arms and abdomen, said police.

At about midnight Friday, Najera was sleeping on a cardboard box in front of a church when one teen lit his pants on fire with a lighter forcing Najera to jump up "causing him to be engulfed in flames,'' said NYPD spokesperson Sgt. Carlos Nieves. Najera is in critical condition at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, said police. Friends and neighbors said they last saw Najera in front of the Iglesia Cristianna Betania where he had been playing dominos with friends.

"His two friends left him and he stayed by himself,'' said the church's pastor Rev. Ariel Soto, who in the last several years tried to get Najera into a shelter and into an alcohol treatment program. "He always told me he didn't want to go."

"Poor man he was just a drunk who did not do anyone any harm,'' said Soto. "He was always respectful."

Soto said he arrived at the church to wash down the sidewalk where Najera was burned. "The whole area smelled like gasoline,'' he said as he swept bits of burnt clothing into the gutter with his feet.

"Whoever did this has no love for humanity,'' said Soto. "The person who did this is psychologically disturbed. There is absolutely no meaning to this." (more at link)



WHERE DOES ANYONE, let alone teenagers, GET AN IDEA LIKE THIS TO PURPOSELY SET SOMEONE ON FIRE?
:mad:
 
What sort of adults are these kids going to grow into.....its scarey to think about.
 
What is scary is that this is starting to become the norm. Just like the teens who were beating homeless people to death, and the ones who were filming the bum fights. What ever happened to compassion for others?
 
I'll ask again...who is raising these monstrous kids???!!! What/who makes them so cold, evil and uncaring???
 
It's not just the kids who come from bad homes anymore. It's kids who are also raised in loving homes. I really don't know what is making a generation of monsters, but it sure wasn't going on when kids were playing pac-man and watching Gilligan's Island. I still believe they are desensitized by the games they play and the movies they watch. Even prime time has become something less than desirable.
 
What sort of adults are these kids going to grow into.....its scarey to think about.

Hopefully they will be growing up behind bars for quite some time. Then they'll probably be ruined for life, but I think they are anyway. :(
 
Oct 2007:

Israel Torres, 29, of the Bronx, was charged with attempted murder and assault in the Oct. 5 attack, police said. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Oct. 8 and was held without bail....

Residents said the victim was a heavy drinker who would bum cigarettes from passers-by, but otherwise was a harmless fixture on the upper Manhattan block. Najera was burned while sleeping in a cardboard box around midnight.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-10-14-2581233384_x.htm
 
Investigators said they now believe that the teenagers found the burning victim and ran away, afraid they would be blamed.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/nyregion/08mbrfs-ARRESTINCASE_BRF.html?referrer=

The man, Felix Najera, 49, was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center with burns over 75 percent of his body, and died in the hospital on Oct. 9, the authorities said.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/nyregion/15mbrfs-burned.html?referer=&_r=0
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
167
Guests online
895
Total visitors
1,062

Forum statistics

Threads
589,937
Messages
17,927,915
Members
228,006
Latest member
Suesleuth
Back
Top