Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, the illegal immigrant accused of lighting a sleeping woman on fire on a New York City subway last weekend, has been indicted on murder charges.
Originally from Guatemala, the suspect was arrested in June 2018 by border control after entering the U.S. through Sonoita, Arizona. He was deported the same month by then-president Donald Trump’s Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and returned to the U.S. illegally “on an unknown date and location,” an ICE spokeswoman told Fox.
Zapeta-Calil has been charged with first- and second-degree murder and first-degree arson. The woman he is accused of killing is still unidentified. Police believe she was homeless; a vigil was held in her honor on Thursday.
Around 7:30 A.M. on December 22 in Brooklyn, the woman was sleeping in a stopped subway car at the Stillwell Avenue Subway Station. A man, allegedly Zapeta-Calil, approached her and lit her clothes on fire before exiting the train and watching the woman inside burn alive from a nearby bench. He sat on the bench and looked on as officers worked to extinguish the flames.
The woman’s clothes “became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds,” and the murder was “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. The woman was declared dead at the scene.
Police released images of the scene to the public after the event. Three high-schoolers identified the alleged murderer and reported his whereabouts to police on Sunday, and authorities arrested him on the subway at Herald Square in Manhattan later that day.
“The depravity of this horrific crime is beyond comprehension, and my office is committed to bringing the perpetrator to justice,” the district attorney’s office said. “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. I commend the NYPD for their swift work in apprehending the suspect.”
Zapeta-Calil will be arraigned on January 7.