New York police identify woman who burned to death inside the subway

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York police announced Tuesday that they have identified the woman who died Dec. 22 after being set on fire while inside a New York subway train as a 61-year-old woman from New Jersey.

The woman, Debrina Kawam, had an address in Toms River, New Jersey, according to the NYPD.

Authorities previously said they were using forensic techniques and video surveillance to identify the victim, who was burned to death in a subway car in Brooklyn. The man accused of setting it on fire, Sebastián Zapeta, was arrested hours after police released images of a suspect.

he is since been accused on charges of murder and arson. Zapeta remains imprisoned. Federal immigration officials say the 33-year-old man is from Guatemala and entered the United States illegally.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that Kawam had a “brief stint in our homeless shelter system” and that authorities had been in contact with his next of kin. He did not say when Kawam was in the homeless system.

“Our hearts go out to the family, it’s a horrible incident to have to go through,” Adams said at an unrelated news conference. “It has an impact on how New Yorkers feel. But it really reinforces what I’ve been saying: people shouldn’t be living in our subway system, they should be in a place of care. “No matter where I lived, that shouldn’t have happened.”

Prosecutors accuse Zapeta of setting fire to Kawam on a stopped F train at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station when he appeared to be sleeping. He then fanned the flames with a shirt, wrapping it in the fire, before sitting on a bench on the platform and watching it burn, prosecutors said.

“This was a malicious act. A sleeping, vulnerable woman in our subway system,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said after her indictment was announced.

The indictment against Zapeta is expected to be made public on January 7.