NEW YORK (PIX11) – Police charged a man after a woman was lit on fire and burned to death on the subway in Brooklyn over the weekend.
Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, was charged on Monday with murder in the first and second degree and arson, police said.
The NYPD is still working to identify the victim. She was burned so severely that she will likely be identified through dental records, according to authorities.
The gruesome attack happened on an F train near the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station around 7:30 a.m. Sunday, police said.
A man lit the sleeping woman’s clothing on fire, according to the NYPD. The man then left the subway car when the train pulled into the station and sat on a platform bench nearby, watching the woman burn to death before leaving the station, according to authorities.
Investigators don’t believe there were any verbal exchanges or interactions before the attack. The crime was caught on surveillance camera, according to the MTA.
After the NYPD released photos of the suspect, three high schoolers called 911 after spotting Zapeta-Calil on another F train at the York Street station in Brooklyn, police said. Officers stopped the train at Herald Square in Manhattan and took him into custody, according to authorities. He had a lighter in his pocket, police said.
Authorities said Zapeta-Calil came to the U.S. from Guatemala in 2018. He lives in a shelter and has no known criminal record in New York, according to the NYPD.
ICE spokesperson Marie Ferguson said immigration authorities deported Zapeta-Calil in 2018, but he reentered the country illegally again at an unknown date and location.
Lauren Cook is a digital journalist who has covered local news in the New York City area for over a decade. She has been with PIX11 since 2020. See more of her work here and follow her on Twitter.
