A murder suspect has been arrested in relation to a case of a woman who was burned to death in a New York subway train.
A man has been arrested and detained; Sebastian Zapeta, aged 33 was charged with first and second degree murder and arson on Monday over the attack.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said of the crime perpetrated on Sunday: “It is arguably among the most terrible acts that one human being could unleash upon his fellow human.”
She said that the woman was in a stationary F train in Brooklyn and was attacked by a man who set her clothes on fire with a lighter and was fully engulfed within seconds. The officers managed to put out the flames but the victim did not survive the incident.
Officers said the woman, who they have not named, was in a subway carriage at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station at about 07:30 local time (12:30 GMT) at which the man first approached her.
The victim was “still” when the assailant doused her with gasoline and lit a match, but detectives were still trying to determine if the victim was asleep. ‘We are not sure too’, spoke Joseph Gulotta with NYPD.
Mr Gulotta said prior to the attack there was no contact between the two; police also do not think the two knew each other.
Describing how police were alerted to the incident, Ms Tisch said: “Two officers were on patrol on an upper level of that station, perceived and observed smoke and proceeded to respond.”
‘’What they saw was a person in the interior of the train car itself who was completely surrounded by fire’’.
A spokesman from the immigration office stated that Mr Zapeta crossed the Mexican border into the US in July 2018 and after being arrested and deported after June 2018 six times. The official said he then violated the law by re-entering the United States.
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