In a deeply unsettling event that has shaken New York City, a woman who was brutally burned to death at a subway station in Brooklyn has been confirmed to be a 57-year-old New Jersey resident. The victim, Debrina Kawam who hailed from Toms River, N.J, met with this deadly fate while she was catching a wink of sleep in an F train that had halted at the Coney Island-Stillwell Ave. station early on the morning of December 22.
The devastating incident severely disturbed the peace of the city and captured everybody’s attention nationwide, leading to a frantic endeavour to accurately identify the remains of the victim, which were heavily charred. Mayor Adams, on Tuesday, stated that he possesses just a bit of information about the victim to date. He only knows her name and the fact that she was a resident of New Jersey.
Mayor Adams also mentioned that Debrina had a transient engagement with the New York City homeless shelter system, remarking, ‘This is a heart-wrenching incident that no family should have to ever experience.’ He expressed his deep condolences to the victim’s family for the gruesome event that they have to process.
The prime suspect in this horrifying crime is Sebastian Zapeta, a 33-year-old man who was recorded on surveillance footage calmly observing the consequences of his alleged horrific act from a bench on the platform, before absconding from the scene. ‘It was unbearable to watch the horrific footages in its entirety’ confessed Adams on Tuesday.
Referring to the incident, Mayor Adams reiterated his longstanding belief that the subway system is not a suitable place for people to reside in. ‘Such atrocities underscore the urgent need for placating care and attention to those who unfortunately have to live on our subway system,’ he added.
The flames had so severely damaged Debrina Kawam’s body that officers had difficulty in lifting her fingerprints initially. It was only later, after numerous attempts, that they were able to successfully retrieve her fingerprints and subsequently determine her identity and inform her relatives about the incident.
In order to discern more details about the incident, detectives thoroughly vetted video footage gathered from across the subway system to determine where and how the victim had embarked on the F train. In situations where visual identification of a body is not feasible, law enforcement relies on fingerprints, which the corpus medicum provides, to establish the identity.
The NYPD conducted a comprehensive search and once a likely match was found, they forwarded the fingerprints to the city Medical Examiner’s office to verify the match, law enforcement sources revealed.
Kawam, interestingly, had no previous record of criminal activities in NYC, although she had been apprehended nine times in Atlantic City, N.J., within a span of six years, from September 2017 to November 2023. She had been predominantly detained for consuming alcohol in public and public sleeping, according to records from New Jersey.
Soon after her most recent arrest, Kawam moved to New York City. She was even given a summons by NYPD in April, although the reason for the summons was immediately not disclosed.
The accused, Zapeta, was staying at a men’s shelter in Brooklyn prior to his arrest. He is originally from Guatemala. At his weekly press briefing on Tuesday, Mayor Adams expressed his concerns over the increasing cases of people sleeping on the streets and subways of NYC.
Expressing his concerns about the situtation, Mayor Adams said: ‘We should not wait for a horrific crime to occur like the burning of an innocent individual or an attack on the subway before we acknowledge that we have an issue that needs immediate addressing.’
Charges against Zapeta allege that he utilized a lighter to ignite the fire on Kawam, before ‘amplifying the fire using a shirt’, as stated by Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Ari Rottenberg at the arraignment. He went on to say that Zapeta was witnessed emerging from the train onto the platform and further stoking the flames with his shirt.
Horrifying footage shows the alleged perpetrator casually seated on a bench on the subway platform, observing the fire consume the woman. The woman reportedly managed to stand up near the subway car’s open door, but was evidently helpless against the engulfing flames.
A grand jury dominated the headlines last week when they voted in favour of charging Zapeta with first-degree murder, an agonizing crime captured on camera. If convicted, Zapeta would be looking at life imprisonment without a possibility of parole.