NEW YORK — The police have identified the woman who was killed after being set on fire in a Brooklyn subway car. They used fingerprint and dental information as well as DNA evidence for identification.
On Tuesday, NYPD officers identified her as 57-year-old Debrina Kawam, originally from Toms River.
She is believed to have been homeless and was sleeping on the subway when she was set on fire.
Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that Kawam briefly spent time in the city’s shelter system.
The authorities emphasized that living in the subway system is not safe and people should instead be in a place where they can receive care. They expressed the importance of not disregarding this issue.
During a hearing last week, a grand jury charged the alleged subway arsonist with four counts of murder. These include one count of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, and arson in the first degree.
Sebastian Zapeta, 33, did not appear in court for prosecutors’ brief announcement of the indictment but he must appear when he is arraigned on the indictment on Jan. 7.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said that “murder in the first degree carries the possibility of life without parole,” calling it a charge that is “more significant in state court than currently in federal court.”
“We believe very strongly that this case belongs in the state court,” he said, quickly adding, “we have a very strong working relationship with our federal partners and of course we will always do what is in the best interests” of the case.
Gonzalez thanked grand jurors who watched the graphic surveillance video of her death recovered from a subway car.
“Right around the holiday, to have to see the video and the images of a woman set on fire is very hard to deal with,” he said. “This was a malicious deed, a sleeping vulnerable woman on our subway system. This was intentional and we intend to prove this in a court of law.”
Police took Zapeta into custody while he was riding a train on the same line later that day. Authorities say he claimed not to know what had happened but identified himself in photos and surveillance video showing the fire being lit.
A Brooklyn address for Zapeta released by police after his arrest matches a shelter that provides housing and substance abuse support.
Federal immigration officials said he was deported in 2018 but returned to the U.S. illegally sometime after that.
The harrowing episode has renewed concerns about safety in the nation’s largest mass transit system.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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