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Woman apologizes for taking selfie in front of deadly East Village blast site

(Instagram via Gothamist)
(Instagram via Gothamist)

A woman who posed for a photo smiling and flashing a peace sign in front of the site of last week’s deadly explosion in the East Village has apologized.

“It was inconsiderate to those hurt in the crash and to the city of New York,” the woman, Christina Freundlich, wrote in an email to the Des Moines Register. “What happened last week in the East Village is not to be taken lightly, and I regret my course of action.”

Freundlich, a former communications director for the Iowa Democratic Party, posted the photo to her Instagram account on Friday, a day after the blast leveled three buildings and left 22 people injured and two missing. Freundlich’s caption: “Scene of the accident.” The image quickly drew outrage.

“WTF is wrong with you?” read a comment on Freundlich’s post.

“I can only imagine how the families of those two missing people must feel right now,” another comment read. “You are heartless.”

Freundlich later deleted the image.

On Sunday, authorities said two bodies discovered amid the rubble are believed to be those of the missing men: 26-year-old Moises Lucon, who worked at a ground-floor sushi restaurant; and 23-year-old Nicholas Figueroa, a bowling alley worker who had been there on a date.

In her email, Freundlich said she was “deeply sorry for my careless and distasteful post.”

But she wasn’t the only person to use the blast site for a photo opportunity.

The cover of the New York Post, March 29, 2015. (New York Post)
The cover of the New York Post, March 29, 2015. (New York Post)

On Sunday, the New York Post published a photo of seven women using a selfie stick outside the site of the deadly blast on its front page above the headline “Village Idiots.”

Meanwhile, some residents in the East Village neighborhood have posted signs asking gawkers to stay off their stoops in a plea for privacy.

“This is a tragedy, not a tourist attraction,” one sign reads. “Show some respect.”