The suspect arrested for setting fire to a homeless woman, killing her inside an F train stopped at a Coney Island subway station, was charged Monday for her gruesome murder.
Sebastian Zapeta, a 33-year-old Guatemalan migrant who lives in Brooklyn, was charged with murder in the first and second degree and arson, officials said. He was nabbed Sunday afternoon at the 34th Street-Herald Square subway station in Manhattan by cops after three high school students saw him on a train and called 911.
The suspect appears to have only one transit summons on his record but was busted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection when he entered the country in 2018.
Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News
Cops investigate the gruesome scene at the Coney Island/Stillwell station in Brooklyn on Sunday. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
“The depravity of this horrific crime is beyond comprehension, and my office is committed to bringing the perpetrator to justice,” Brooklyn Distraict Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “This gruesome and senseless act of violence against a vulnerable woman will be met with the most serious consequences. Every New Yorker deserves to feel safe on our subways, and we will do everything in our power to ensure accountability in this case.
Disturbing video obtained by the Daily News shows the woman, whose identity has not yet been determined, standing near the door of a stopped subway car at the Coney-Island-Stillwell Ave. station just before 7:30 a.m. Sunday with her clothes ablaze — while a man sits on a bench on the platform a few feet away and casually watches her burn to death.
Police said the man in the video is the suspect, who stayed on the scene after setting the victim on fire with a lighter inside the subway car.
The woman and the suspect had taken the train to Coney Island and did not know each other, cops said.
“Officers who were on patrol on an upper level of that station smelled and saw smoke and went to investigate. What they saw was a person standing inside the train car fully engulfed in flames,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a Sunday afternoon press conference. “With the help of an MTA employee and a fire extinguisher, the flames were put out. Unfortunately, it was too late, and the victim was pronounced [dead] on the scene.
“Unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect had stayed on the scene and was seated on a bench on the platform, just outside the train car,” Tisch added.
Police body cameras captured crystal clear images of the suspect, which were then released to the public.
Three teenagers recognized the man from the photos and called 911, enabling NYPD and transit officers to work together to arrest him at a Manhattan subway stop, Tisch said.
With John Annese
