By Fiona McLoughlin
A sleeping subway passenger was set on fire and burned to death Sunday morning, the New York Post (NYP) reported. A man sitting across from the sleeping woman got up, walked past her and threw a lit match onto her, causing her to light on fire.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) responded to a call of a fire around 7:30 a.m., at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station, finding a woman engulfed in flames on the F train, the NYP reported.
“New York City had 0 subway murders in 2017. This year, we’ve reached 11, the latest a gruesome immolation,” notes John Ketchum of the Manhattan Institute. Murders have increased a lot in New York’s subway system.
Liquor bottles were found surrounding the woman, although it was not immediately clear if the bottles had any impact on the fire, the Post noted. (RELATED: 23-Year-Old Burned After Shielding Fiancée From Man Allegedly Tossing Flaming Liquid On Subway).
The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
The suspect, Sebastian Zapeta, was later arrested after he was spotted riding the train to 34th Street in Manhattan. “Officials said the 33-year-old suspect came to the US in 2018 from Guatemala. His legal status wasn’t immediately clear Sunday night. Horrifying video obtained by The Post showed the suspect calmly looking on as flames consumed the still-unidentified woman, who stood inside the open subway car door.”
The man has yet to be charged, a source told the NYP.
“The man who set an innocent woman on fire on the New York Subway, Sebastian Zapeta, is a recent migrant from Guatemala” who the Biden administration refused to deport, says journalist Nick Sortor.
A video circulating on social media appears to show the suspect sitting on a bench outside the subway car watching as the victim was engulfed in flames.
Sleeping subway rider burned alive on F train after crazed attacker tosses lit match on her: police sources https://t.co/CusXurtlLF pic.twitter.com/MPfzS9HmWD
— New York Post (@nypost) December 22, 2024
Service on the F train was suspended well into the afternoon as officials continued to investigate the scene. The woman’s body was reportedly removed from the station around 1:00 p.m.
An MTA worker told the NYP it looked like the woman’s clothes had been “burnt off.”
“I was just walking by. The cops was there already. I didn’t see her in flames but that’s what I heard. It was out. They shut the lights off [in the car] so nobody could see,” the worker told the outlet.
“It’s scary,” Alex Gureyev, a Brooklyn construction manager told the Post. “It’s going down hill a bit. Everybody keeps saying it’s going back to the seventies. It’s a frequent occurrence — not like this, setting people on fire — but like the mugging, the killings, the fighting, the shootings, they’re really common nowadays. [It’s] very bad.”
Murders on the New York City subway have increased at least 60% this year alone, according to data from September, the Post previously reported.
