Victim of Coney Island Subway Immolation Is Identified by the Police
Chelsia Rose Marcius et al., New York Times, December 31, 2024
Investigators have learned the name of a woman who was burned alive — and beyond recognition — aboard a Brooklyn train last week.
The police identified the woman as Debrina Kawam of Toms River, N.J. She was the victim of an apparently random attack captured in videos that showed her bracing herself against the doorway of an F train in Coney Island, her body engulfed by flames. Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, has been accused of setting fire to Ms. Kawam with a lighter and was charged with first-degree murder and arson.
Ms. Kawam’s identity was confirmed on Monday through fingerprint analysis, said Julie Bolcer, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner’s office. Ms. Kawam was 57, though police officials initially had said she was 61.
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The fragmentary traces Ms. Kawam left behind in yearbooks and public records sketch a troubled life.
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On Dec. 22, around 7:30 a.m., Ms. Kawam was sitting motionless on a subway train, apparently asleep, when Mr. Zapeta-Calil walked up, took out a lighter and set her on fire, according to prosecutors and the police. He then stepped out of the train and sat on a bench on the subway platform, staring as the smoke and flames overwhelmed Ms. Kawam, the police said.
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The authorities do not believe Ms. Kawam and Mr. Zapeta-Calil knew each other. She was already on the train when he boarded it in Queens, and they both rode to the end of the line in Coney Island, the official added, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity. People often sleep on subway trains in cold weather; the outside temperature on the morning Ms. Kawam was killed was 16 degrees.
Mr. Zapeta-Calil is an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who was deported in 2018 only to illegally return to the United States, according to federal immigration officials.
The suspect had been living for the past couple of months at a shelter in Brooklyn for men with drug and alcohol problems, according to the police and residents of the shelter. A grand jury indicted him last week on first-degree murder, second-degree murder and arson charges.
After Mr. Zapeta-Calil’s arrest, federal officials issued two immigration detainers, according to Jeffrey Carter, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Detainers are requests to the police and the city Department of Correction that they notify the federal agency before Mr. Zapeta-Calil’s court case is done and is released from jail.
City sanctuary laws prevent city agencies from sharing immigration information about defendants with federal officials, including when they will be released from police custody or from jail. However, the laws let the agencies tell ICE about noncitizens who have been convicted of any of 177 serious offenses, including rape and felony assault.
