Police on Tuesday identified the woman who died after being set on fire while sleeping on a New York City subway.
According to NBC News, the woman was 57-year-old Debrina Kawam. The incident happened on the morning of December 22 when the victim, who was from Toms River, New Jersey, was sleeping on an F train at the Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn.
The suspect in the case, 33-year-old Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, is an illegal alien from Guatemala, Breitbart News reported Thursday:
🚨 JUST IN: The woman tragically burned alive on a Brooklyn subway has been identified as a 49-year-old NYC resident. The suspect, Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, an illegal immigrant deported in 2018, reportedly set her on fire using a lighter and fueled the flames with his shirt.… pic.twitter.com/4vkdAHsgm9
— Tony Lane 🇺🇸 (@TonyLaneNV) December 31, 2024
In their initial announcement Tuesday, officials with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) said Kawam was 61 years old. However, her age was later corrected.
During a press conference, New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) said Kawam spent a short time in the city’s homeless shelter system, then offered his condolences to those who loved her.
“Our hearts go out to the family. A horrific incident to have to live through and just watching that tape, just really, I couldn’t even watch it all the way through. It was just a bad incident and it impacts on how New Yorkers feel,” he stated.
A video recording appears to show the subway and the woman on fire as she stood in the doorway of the train.
WARNING – GRAPHIC VIDEO:
JUST IN: The woman who was burned to death on a NYC subway by an alleged illegal immigrant, has been identified as a 61-year-old woman from New Jersey.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 31, 2024
The woman was so badly burned that it took police days to figure out who she was.
She was finally identified as Debrina Kawam… pic.twitter.com/mJfJuXuNPy
More video shows authorities at the scene:
The same day of the incident, subway riders called authorities when they saw the suspect a few hours later and he was arrested. He was also recorded on police body camera.
Following his arrest, the illegal alien said he “doesn’t know what happened” and suggested he may have been drunk when the scene unfolded, prosecutors noted.
Another clip shows police walking the suspect to a vehicle as reporters shouted to him, “Why did you do it?” Per the New York Post, one of the charges against him was for arson:
Subway arson suspect Sebastian Zapeta-Calil is walked from the 60th precinct https://t.co/WUMPZKFwae pic.twitter.com/5TmiKXrjGl
— New York Post (@nypost) December 23, 2024
He was also charged with first and second-degree murder in the case, Breitbart News reported:
According to prosecutors, Zapeta-Calil told police he “drinks a lot of liquor” and “doesn’t know what happened” at the time of the fatal attack. Zapeta-Calil had reportedly been living in a Brooklyn homeless shelter frequented by men with substance abuse issues.
Prosecutors said that while the woman was on fire, seemingly standing in a state of paralysis, Zapeta-Calil watched her burn alive and even, at one point, got up to fan the flames.
“Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have confirmed that Zapeta-Calil is an illegal alien who is among millions of so-called ‘got-aways’ living in the United States after having successfully crossed the southern border without being detected,” the outlet said.
