Grisly New York Subway Murder

"New Yorkers came through again. [The case is] one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being."

"[The woman's clothing] became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds."

"[Body cameras worn by the officers caught a] very clear, detailed look [at the suspect and those images were publicly disseminated."

"Officers 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." 

New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch

The incident unfolded at Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn   Getty Images

 

A woman seated inside a stationary subway train in New York City was approached silently by a stranger. The woman appeared to be asleep. The man who moved toward this woman had clear intentions to destroy the life of someone he knew nothing about. He is now in police custody considered for the time being to be a 'person of interest' in a crime. The woman is dead. Incinerated. 

 

The police are investigating whether the unidentified woman was a homeless person. And attempting to establish who the man is and what his possible motive could be.

The man had been apprehended by transit police who had received a report from three high school students who had seen images of the suspect from surveillance and police bodycam videos which police had distributed widely. The three identified the man, recognizing his image. Their assistance in identifying the man ultimately led to his arrest.

According to Police Commissioner Tisch, what is known is that both the woman and the suspect were on a subway train and no interaction had taken place between them. They rode to the end of the line in Brooklyn on Sunday at around 7:30 in the morning. Surveillance video from the subway car showed the man 'calmly' walking toward the victim when the train came to a stop. The woman was seated motionless and might have been sleeping.

The man retrieved a lighter from a pocket and proceeded to set the woman's clothing on fire. Officers at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station on a routine patrol detected the odour of smoke and  saw it rising from the subway car. They headed directly for the car to discover a woman standing in the middle of the subway car, within a blazing fire consuming her clothing and the woman herself. Emergency medical personnel, the fire extinguished, declared the woman dead at the scene.

The suspect, meanwhile had not left the area. He had seated himself on a bench on the platform of the subway, close by the train car. Following a 911 call from the teenagers identifying the man, transit officers realized the man was present on another subway train, radoieing ahead an emergency alert to the next station. Officers at that next station kept the train doors closed while they searched every car, ultimately apprehending the man without incident. When he was taken into custody a lighter was found in his pocket.

New York police released images of a person of interest in the incident, later announcing they had charged him with murder  New York Police Dept. via Reuters

The man has since been publicly identified as 33-year-old Sebastian Zapeta. The charges against him include that he had fanned the flames that resulted when he set the woman's clothing on fire, waving a shirt that caused flames to fully engulf her. He faces charges of first and second degree murder, along with arson, for the attack. According to an immigration official, the man had entered the U.S. illegally in 2018. He was detained and deported. He once again illegally entered the U.S.