December 23, 2024 BROOKLYN, New York – A 33-year-old man has been arrested and charged in the murder of a woman who was set on fire while sleeping on a subway train approaching the last stop at a Coney Island transit station in New York.
Sebastian Zapeta-Calil was charged with first & second degree murder, along with arson for the attack on the woman who has yet to be named publicly by police officials.
The Guatemalan citizen was seen in handcuffs while escorted by NYPD Detectives out of the 60th precinct in Coney Island to a waiting jail transport vehicle.
Zapeta-Calil has been accused of a heinous crime after allegedly setting a woman of fire inside a subway car and seen on video taken by another train passenger, sitting on a bench and watching the victim burn to death.
According to police, the victim was asleep in a seated position across from the suspect towards the end of a subway car. It’s believed that as the train was approaching the last stop, the accused male stood up and used a lighter to ignite the victims clothing.
Almost instantly the woman became fully engulfed in flames before standing up inside the subway car. The fire was extinguished by an MTA worker however the woman did not survive and EMS pronounced her deceased on the F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn.
Unknown to responding officers, the suspect remained at the scene of the heinous crime and watched the victim burn to death from a bench in front of open subway car doors with a direct view of the woman burning. The suspect was seen calmly leaving the area on cell phone footage obtained and shared by the NYPD
According to police officials, a group of teens noticed the suspect on an F train in Brooklyn and alerted police to his presence after seeing photos of the suspect broadcasted by multiple news outlets.
Transit District 2 officers radioed ahead to have the train stopped for a murder suspect search as the person of interest boarded a train that already left the station.
Police in Manhattan boarded a packed F line train that was halted at the Herald Square station, going from car to car before locating and apprehending the suspect without further incident.
The man accused of the violent incident was found with a lighter in his pocket, and the investigation into the fatal fire is ongoing, cops said.
