Police ID woman set on fire in shocking incident on New York City subway car
Authorities have identified the woman who burned to death after she was set on fire inside a New York City subway train as 57-year-old Debrina Kawam.
At a news conference, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Kawam, of Toms River, New Jersey, had a “brief stint in our homeless shelter system." Neither he nor the police department said whether she was homeless.
Her identification on Tuesday came more than a week after the attack Dec. 22 shocked the nation's largest city and raised concerns over safety in the public transit system.
Last week, a grand jury indicted Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, a 33-year-old Guatemalan man in the country illegally, on murder and arson charges.
Prosecutors and police officials say the suspect approached a woman sitting on an F train subway car early that morning, set her on fire with a lighter and fanned the flames using a shirt. New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the suspect sat on a platform bench near the train car as the woman burned before fleeing, and responding officers' body cameras captured his image.
Tisch described the attack as "one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being."
Officials said Zapeta-Calil had been deported in June 2018 but made it back into the country. It was not known when and where he reached the U.S. illegally again.
Zapeta-Calil was arrested Dec. 23 after he was spotted by several high school students on the subway in Midtown Manhattan.
At a court appearance last week, Assistant District Attorney Ari Rottenberg said Zapeta-Calil had identified himself in photos related to the grisly attack. Rottenberg also said the suspect told authorities he did not know anything about the incident. An attorney for Zapeta-Calil has not responded to Paste BN's requests for comment.
His next court appearance was set for Jan 7.
Contributing: John Bacon and Thao Nguyen, Paste BN; Reuters