New York City police have named the woman who was burned to death after setting fire to a Brooklyn subway car.
Authorities on Tuesday identified Debrina Kawaam, 57, of New Jersey, as the victim of a random attack on Dec. 22 that left her body burned beyond recognition.
Sebastian Zapeta, 33, is accused of starting the fire with a lighter while Kawaam was sleeping. He reportedly fanned the flames with his shirt and watched it grow from a bench outside a subway car.
Last week, a grand jury indicted Mr. Zapeta, who says he has no memory of the incident, on four counts of murder and one count of arson.
Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said the death was ruled a homicide due to “laceration and inhalation injuries.” She released her ID on Tuesday.
“Yesterday, the medical examiner confirmed the identity through fingerprint analysis, and it was a multi-agency effort with our law enforcement partners,” she said.
It took more than a week for authorities to identify Mr. Khawam’s body.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said at a news conference early in the investigation that authorities were working to collect DNA evidence and fingerprints from Khawam’s remains.
“It is a top priority for me, my office and the police department to identify this woman and notify her family,” Gonzalez said.
While authorities worked, false and unverified information about her, including fake AI-generated photos, was circulated online.
There was a wave of support last week, including a vigil for the victim, who was not identified at the time.
Police said that in the early hours of December 22, Khawam was sleeping motionless on a stopped subway train at the Coney Island-Stilwell Avenue station in Brooklyn when Zapeta approached her with a lighter.
The two men had never interacted with each other and police believe they did not know each other.
The video appears to show the suspect waving his shirt at her in an effort to fan the flames rather than put them out. He then gets off the subway, sits on a bench on the platform, and watches the flames.
New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the smell of smoke prompted police and Metropolitan Transportation Authority officers to rush to the scene and extinguish the fire.
“Unbeknownst to police responding, the suspect remained at the scene and sat on a bench on the platform just outside the train carriage,” Mr Tisch said.
Authorities pronounced Kawam dead at the scene.
Mr Tisch described the incident as “one of the most depraved crimes one person can commit against another.”
At a preliminary hearing Tuesday, prosecutor Ari Rothenberg said Mr. Zapeta told investigators he had been drinking and had no recollection of the incident, but identified himself in photos and surveillance video showing the fire being set.
Mr. Zapeta, who is from Guatemala, re-entered the country illegally after being deported from the United States in 2018, immigration officials said.
Prosecutors said he is scheduled to appear in court again on January 7.
The incident is one of a series of attacks that have raised concerns among passengers on the nation’s largest public transit system, despite a decline in crime rates on the New York City subway.
Subway safety concerns arose again Tuesday afternoon when someone was pushed onto the tracks in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood, according to New York City police.
The unidentified male victim was hospitalized with head injuries, authorities said.
The suspect was captured on camera, but he was still unconscious as of late Tuesday afternoon.
