A migrant from Guatemala has been taken into custody in connection with the brutal death of a woman who was set on fire and killed while on a subway train in Brooklyn, New York, last Sunday.
Sources have revealed that the individual in question, identified as 33-year-old Sebastin Zapeta, came to the U.S. from Guatemala about a year ago; however, it is uncertain whether his entry was legal or illegal.
Fox News Digital has reached out to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for more information on Zapeta.
New York Police Department (NYPD) officials said no charges had been filed in the case during a Sunday evening press conference.
Police said the man and woman had no interaction before he threw a lighter on her, causing her to go up in flames within seconds. (NYPD)
Body-worn cameras on the responding officers produced a clear and detailed look “at the killer,” Tisch said.
Following the release of the suspect’s description and images to the public, three high school students from New York contacted 911 after recognizing him. Transit officers promptly responded to the call, approached the students, and spotted a man resembling the suspect on another train that was in motion.
The train was ordered to stop at the next station, where two transit officers boarded the train and located the person of interest before arresting him without further incident. Tisch added that the person of interest was found with a lighter in his pocket.
Police investigate at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn after a woman aboard a subway car was set on fire and died in New York, on December 22, 2024. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said his prayers are with the family of the victim in “this senseless killing.”
“Grateful to the young New Yorkers and transit officers who stepped up to help our NYPD make a quick arrest following this morning’s heinous and deadly subway attack,” Adams wrote. “This type of depraved behavior has no place in our subways and we are committed to working hard to ensure there is swift justice for all victims of violent crime.”
The incident left people shocked just days before Christmas.
Police believe the woman had been sleeping aboard the train when a man approached her and set her on fire. She was pronounced dead at the scene. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
According to the New York Post, an MTA worker said it looked like the woman’s clothes were completely “burnt off.”
“I was just walking by. The police was there already. I didn’t see her in flames but that’s what I heard. It was out. They shut the lights off [in the car] so nobody could see,” the worker told the Post.
Another person was nearby as police processed the scene and the woman’s body was already extinguished.
Police investigate the scene where a woman died after being lit on fire by a man aboard an MTA subway train as she slept at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York. (Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“That s–t is crazy – it’s only three days until Christmas,” he told the Post. “That’s messed up.”
Police encourage anyone with information about the incident to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
Tips can also be submitted by going to crimestoppers.nypdonline.org.
