A woman died as the result of a burning attack inside a subway car in Coney Island. Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, lit Debrina Kawam, 57, on fire inside a parked F train on Dec. 22 and then reportedly watched from a nearby bench as the fire consumed her. A complaint filed in Brooklyn criminal court said Kawam died of “thermal injuries and smoke inhalation.”
Zapeta-Calil, 33, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who was deported in 2018 and returned illegally to the United States later, may plead not guilty when he is arraigned on a formal indictment in the coming weeks, a spokesman for the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said.
He was identified using CCTV footage and found on another train. When he was arrested on that train, he was wearing the same clothes as the man shown in videos of the attack, and he had a lighter in his pocket, according to police. He was charged on Dec. 23 with first-degree murder and arson.
The seemingly random attack has exacerbated worry about safety in the New York’s public transit system.