Tuesday, December 24, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 17
ABC7 News: A man accused of setting a woman on fire inside a New York City subway train and then watching her die after she was engulfed in flames is awaiting arraignment on Tuesday.
Sebastian Zapeta, 33, is facing murder and arson charges in the woman’s death.
Federal immigration officials said Zapeta is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally after he was previously deported in 2018.
The apparently random attack occurred Sunday morning on a stationary F train at the Coney Island station in Brooklyn, police said.
Authorities say Zapeta approached the woman, who was sitting motionless in the train car and may have been sleeping, and used a lighter to set her clothing on fire. The woman quickly became engulfed in flames, while Zapeta then sat at a bench on the subway platform and watched as police officers and a transit worker doused the fire, according to police.
The woman, whose identity has not yet been released, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Zapeta was arrested Sunday afternoon while riding a train on the same subway line after police got a tip from some teenagers who recognized him from images circulated by the police.
In a statement, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez called the attack a “gruesome and senseless act of violence against a vulnerable woman” that would be “met with the most serious consequences.”
The crime – and a graphic video of it that ricocheted across social media – deepened a growing sense of unease among New Yorkers about the safety of the subway system.
