New York
The Mystery of a Subway Victim’s Downward Spiral
Good morning. It’s Monday. Today we’ll read about the early life and downward spiral of Debrina Kawam, the woman who was burned alive on a train in Brooklyn last month at age 57.
Andy Newman, who covers homelessness and poverty for the Metro desk, and I spent days reporting on the twists and turns of her life in an attempt to understand her life after her death made headlines across the country.
Debrina Kawam’s story was a tale of two lives. In her first act, she was Debbie, the girl who old friends fondly remembered as a spitfire and beloved Little Falls, N.J., sweetheart.
Those who knew her said she had an inner glow that shined through as she cheered on football players in high school, posed against a collage of Led Zeppelin posters and welcomed diners at Perkins Pancake House with a smile.
Accounts of her early life further revealed a jubilant woman who took a bite out of life whenever she could, whether that was through trips to the Caribbean or partying with friends.
In 2003, she legally changed her first name to Debrina.
Somewhere along the way her life changed, and it took a dark turn in the early 2000s. It still remains unclear what may have happened to trigger her heart-wrenching downfall.
Financial records show that she accumulated about $90,000 in debt, eventually leaving her with a handful of possessions: a Dodge Neon valued at $800, a television, a futon worth $300 and some clothes.
Grappling with alcohol abuse, Kawam racked up dozens of summonses for drinking and disorderly conduct along the Jersey Shore starting in the mid-2010s.
She tried to visit her mother in Toms River, N.J., this spring, only to find out that her mother had sold the home and moved away.
In the fall of last year, Kawam was homeless. After an outreach team encountered her at Grand Central Terminal, she entered the New York City shelter system and was assigned to a facility in the Bronx. But she never showed up.
On Dec. 22, she had dozed off on a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station when a man calmly walked up to her and set her clothes on fire with a lighter, the authorities said. Sebastian Zapeta-Calil has been charged with murder and arson in the case.
She died from burns and smoke inhalation. It took the medical examiner’s office days to identify her. But since Kawam’s name emerged, her story has become one that is likely to remain in New Yorkers’ memories.
Weather
Today there will be light snow with clouds and a high near 31. Tonight, the sky will remain cloudy as the temperature dips into the low 20s.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
Suspended today for Three Kings Day.
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Dear Diary:
My tooth was aching as I got off a packed northbound A train at 175th Street. I joined a river of people flowing at rush hour through the long tunnel that leads to the George Washington Bridge Bus Station.
I was deeply lost in my thoughts when I was overtaken by an immaculately dressed, middle-aged man.
To my astonishment, he stopped, turned and, blocking my way, looked directly into my eyes with an indignant expression.
“May I help you?” I asked.
“You missed a whole passage,” he said in an angry voice.
“What passage?” I said.
“From the ‘Trout Quintet’,” he said. “By Schubert.”
“Was I whistling?” I asked. “I frequently do that unconsciously, usually classical music.”
“I am sort of tone deaf,” I added, trying for some reason to assuage his anger.
“Tone deafness has nothing to do with it,” he said. “You missed a whole passage.”
I tried to ask if he was a musician, but just then my voice was drowned out by someone in the tunnel who started to play an Andean panpipe really loudly.
“I am sorry,” I said apologetically to the man before continuing on. “But I really have to get to my dentist.”
— Bronek Pytowski
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here.
Glad we could get together here. James Barron will be back tomorrow.
P.S. Here’s today’s Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here.
‘Part of the job’
Edwin Guity was at the controls of a southbound D train last December, rolling through the Bronx, when suddenly someone was on the tracks in front of him.
He jammed on the emergency brake, but it was too late. The man had gone under the wheels.
Stumbling over words, Mr. Guity radioed the dispatcher and then did what the rules require of every train operator involved in such an incident. He got out of the cab and went looking for the person he had struck.
“I didn’t want to do it,” Mr. Guity said later. “But this is a part of the job.”
He found the man pinned beneath the third car. Paramedics pulled him out, but the man died at the hospital. After that, Mr. Guity wrestled with what to do next.
A 32-year-old who had once lived in a family shelter with his parents, he viewed the job as paying well and offering a rare chance at upward mobility. It also helped cover the costs of his family’s groceries and rent in the three-bedroom apartment they shared in Brooklyn.
But striking the man with the train had shaken him more than perhaps any other experience in his life, and the idea of returning to work left him feeling paralyzed.
Edwin Guity was prescribed exposure therapy after his train struck a man on the tracks.
Hundreds of train operators have found themselves in Mr. Guity’s position over the years.
And for just as long, there has been a path through the state workers’ compensation program to receiving substantive treatment to help them cope. But New York’s train operators say that their employer, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has done too little to make them aware of that option.
After Mr. Guity’s incident, no official told him of that type of assistance, he said. Instead, they gave him the option of going back to work right away.
But Mr. Guity was lucky. He had a friend who had been through the same experience and who coached him on getting help — first through a six-week program and then, with the assistance of a lawyer, through an experienced specialist.
The specialist prescribed a six-month exposure therapy program to gradually reintroduce Mr. Guity to the subway.
His first day back at the controls of a passenger train was on Thanksgiving. Once again, he was driving on the D line — the same route he had been traveling on the day of the fatal accident.
M.T.A. representatives insisted that New York train operators involved in strikes are made aware of all options for getting treatment, but they declined to answer specific questions about how the agency ensures that drivers get the help they need.
In an interview, the president of the M.T.A. division that runs the subway, Demetrius Crichlow, said all train operators are fully briefed on the resources available to them during their job orientation.
“I really have faith in our process,” Mr. Crichlow said.
Still, other transit systems — all of which are smaller than New York’s — appear to do a better job of ensuring that operators like Mr. Guity take advantage of the services available to them, according to records and interviews.
A Times analysis shows that the incidents were on the rise in New York City’s system even as they were falling in all other American transit systems.
An Uptick in Subway Strikes
San Francisco’s system provides 24-hour access to licensed therapists through a third-party provider.
Los Angeles proactively reaches out to its operators on a regular basis to remind them of workers’ compensation options and other resources.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has made it a goal to increase engagement with its employee assistance program.
The M.T.A. says it offers some version of most of these services.
But in interviews with more than two dozen subway operators who have been involved in train strikes, only one said he was aware of all those resources, and state records suggest most drivers of trains that strike people are not taking full advantage of them.
“It’s the M.T.A.’s responsibility to assist the employee both mentally and physically after these horrific events occur,” the president of the union that represents New York City transit workers, John V. Chiarello, said in a statement, “but it is a constant struggle trying to get the M.T.A. to do the right thing.”
new video loaded: Protesters Arrested After Trying to Block a Possible ICE Raid
transcript
transcript
Protesters Arrested After Trying to Block a Possible ICE Raid
Nearly 200 protesters tried to block federal agents from leaving a parking garage in Lower Manhattan on Saturday. The confrontation appeared to prevent a possible ICE raid nearby, and led to violent clashes between the police and protesters.
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[chanting] “ICE out of New York.”
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