The man accused of burning a sleeping subway passenger to death is an illegal migrant who was previously deported from the United States, federal immigration authorities have confirmed.
The New York Police Department has detained an illegal Guatemalan migrant who they suspect is responsible for burning a woman alive Sunday morning at a New York City subway station. Investigators believe the suspect walked up to the sleeping passenger, who so far has remained unidentified, and used a lighter to set her clothing on fire, and then is believed to have stayed on scene to watch the victim succumb to her injuries.
A spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that the migrant suspect is Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, a 33-year-old foreign national living in the U.S. unlawfully.
“Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, is an unlawfully present Guatemalan citizen who entered the United States without admission by an immigration official,” ICE spokesperson Jeff Carter said in a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “U.S. Border Patrol in Sonoita, Arizona, encountered Zapeta June 1, 2018, and served him with an order of expedited removal and Enforcement and Removal Operations removed Zapeta from the U.S. to Guatemala June 7, 2018.”
“Zapeta unlawfully reentered the United States on an unknown date and location,” Carter continued.
The NYPD arrested Zapeta as part of its investigation into the murder of the woman on the subway in Coney Island, New York, ICE confirmed. Once the Guatemalan national is charged and a holding location is released, the agency will lodge an immigration detainer with the NYPD for him.
The attack appears to be a random act of violence, according to a description of the details by police investigators.
“As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim who was in a seated position at the end of the subway car,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a Sunday press conference about the incident “The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds.”
Police officers who were on patrol at an upper level of that train station went to investigate after they smelled and saw smoke, according to the commissioner, who called the attack “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit” against another individual. Upon their arrival to the scene, they found the victim standing in the train car fully engulfed in flames, and made attempts to put the fire out as quickly as possible.
Body cam footage from the police officers later revealed that the suspect, Zapeta, had stayed on the scene to watch the events unfold. Witnesses later identified the man to police and he was ultimately apprehended by the NYPD, and he was found with a lighter in his pocket.
The killing marks just the latest high-profile crime in New York City allegedly at the hands of an illegal migrant. The illegal immigration wave in New York City has pushed local lawmakers, including Democrat Mayor Eric Adams, to call for an end to the city’s sanctuary laws and growing desire to work with the upcoming Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts.
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