The illegal immigrant accused of lighting a sleeping woman on fire and then casually watching her burn to death inside a New York City subway car was deported under the Trump administration but had been back in the states since at least 2023.
Guatemalan national Sebastian Zapeta, 33, was charged with first- and second-degree murder and arson Monday, a day after police said he set the woman ablaze in a Coney Island station and took a seat nearby as the flames consumed her.
Police had not identified the woman as of Monday. Authorities said previously that the woman was a complete stranger to Mr. Zapeta.
But the illegal immigrant had been handled before by federal authorities at the U.S. southern border, according to the New York Post.
Law enforcement sources told the newspaper Mr. Zapeta was captured crossing into Arizona in 2018. Less than a week later, he was sent back to his home country.
It’s unclear when Mr. Zapeta, who has no criminal record, sneaked back into the U.S., but the Post reported that in 2023 he stated his address was at the Randall’s Island migrant shelter.
The woman’s brutal death was overlooked by Gov. Kathy Hochul when she celebrated a drop in subway crime stats on social media Sunday afternoon.
“Two hours ago, Kathy Hochul took a victory lap for making subways ‘safer,’” Rep. Ritchie Torres, New York Democrat, tweeted Sunday evening. “She congratulates herself on the same day two subway riders were stabbed in Queens (one in the face and one in the chest) and another was barbarically burned alive. Has there ever been a more tone-deaf Governor in the history of New York?”
Melissa DeRosa, a Democratic strategist who worked under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, also skewered Mrs. Hochul’s obliviousness in an X post.
“2 people were murdered in the subway today,” Ms. DeRosa wrote. “The governor of the state of NY is a tourist who can’t even bother to read a newspaper while she’s in town.”
Mrs. Hochul’s social media post mentioned her spring deployment of National Guard troops into stations and adding cameras to the subway system have protected riders and encouraged more people to take the train.
Critics scoffed at her orders months ago and called the move a form of security “theater” that looks tough-on-crime but would do little to bring about safer trips on the rails.
They may have had a point: the expansive transit system has seen 11 homicides so far this year, surpassing the subway’s former record of 10 killings in 2022.
New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch called the woman’s fiery killing “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being” during a Sunday press conference.
The commissioner said Mr. Zapeta used a lighter to ignite the sleeping woman’s clothing around 7:30 a.m. She became engulfed in flames in a matter of minutes.
Commissioner Tisch said transit police were doing their normal patrol when they smelled, and then saw, smoke coming out of an idling F train.
Officers arrived to find the burning woman and worked quickly to extinguish the blaze, but she did not survive the attack.
Meanwhile, police said Mr. Zapeta stuck around to watch the carnage unfold.
“Unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect had stayed on the scene and was seated on a bench on the platform just outside the train car, and the body-worn cameras on the responding officers produced a very clear detailed look at the killer,” Commissioner Tisch said.
He was arrested later Sunday aboard a subway car in Midtown Manhattan.
The slaying of the unknown woman came hours after an attempted robbery escalated into deadly bloodshed on a separate train in Queens.
Shortly after midnight, police told the New York Daily News that a group of five thieves tried to steal bags from a sleeping 69-year-old man.
Authorities said the man woke up mid-heist and confronted the thieves. A struggle ensued and the older man eventually pulled out a knife and retaliated against the robbers.
Police said one of the men was stabbed in the face, and the other was fatally stabbed in the chest.
The 69-year-old man was arrested, although it’s uncertain if he’ll face charges in a case that could be construed as self-defense.
