Illegal migrant watched woman burn to death on NYC subway train after setting her on fire: police
Authorities say that Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, an illegal migrant from Guatemala, calmly approached a woman on a New York subway and lit her clothes on fire, with surveillance footage showing the man watching the victim burn to death.
Zapeta-Calil had previously been deported in 2018, but he later reentered the United States illegally at an unknown date and location, according to immigration officials.
Prosecutors have charged the suspect with first- and second-degree murder and first-degree arson in connection with the woman’s death, CNN reported. The illegal migrant is now awaiting arraignment.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
After an encounter with Zapeta-Calil in Sonoita, Arizona, on June 1, 2018, the U.S. Border Patrol issued an expedited removal. While the migrant returned to Guatemala six days later, he unlawfully reentered the U.S.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment.
On the day of the incident, police said Zapeta-Calil walked up to a woman on a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station, according to The New York Times. The migrant said nothing as he proceeded to light the woman’s clothes on fire, the flames taking only a few seconds to engulf her.
At around 7:30 a.m., officers patrolling the upper level of the station detected smoke and went to investigate.
As officers and a Metropolitan Transportation Authority worker tried to help the woman by putting out the flames with a fire extinguisher, Zapeta-Calil watched the events unfold from a bench on the subway platform. Despite their efforts, authorities eventually pronounced the female victim dead on the scene.
Police took the suspect into custody hours after the attack, the Times added. Law enforcement caught the migrant after three high schoolers reported they had seen a man who looked like the suspect from images distributed by police and shared by the press.
CNN confirmed that the arrest report lists the suspect’s most recent address as a homeless shelter in Brooklyn. The shelter is for men who struggle with substance abuse, as the outlet learned through the New York Police Department.
The incident has prompted concerns about crimes committed by individuals who have entered the country illegally, a topic that came up frequently during the 2024 presidential election.
Ali Bradley, a network correspondent covering the southern border for News Nation, said in a Tuesday X post that sources at the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Zapeta-Calil was identified in February 2023 through the New York City Secure Communities program.
The Secure Communities program allowed DHS to check the immigration status of people arrested by local police; however, New York suspended its participation in the program.
“No arrests/convictions were made at that time,” Bradley wrote. “Sources say Zapeta-Calil was allowed to stay in the country likely because he wasn’t ‘a current administration priority…’”
“Nearly a year later, he’s in custody for setting an innocent woman on a subway in New York on fire,” she added.
Tom Homan, a former ICE director tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as the incoming administration’s border czar, shared a clip of the NYPD escorting Zapeta-Calil to court.
“What would you like to see happen to the illegal alien Sebastian Zapeta-Calil?” he asked in a post on X.
“Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, the illegal alien who was accused of setting an innocent woman on fire while riding the New York City subway and just sat there watching her d*e, is escorted out of the police precinct by the NYPD on his way to court,” Homan wrote.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
