Police identify woman set on fire in deadly New York attack

Police in New York City have named the woman who was set on fire and burned to death on a subway train in Brooklyn.

Authorities on Tuesday identified Debrina Kawam, 61, of New Jersey as the victim of the apparently random Dec. 22 attack that burned her body beyond recognition.

Sebastian Zapeta, 33, is accused of starting the fire with a lighter while Ms Kawam was sleeping. He allegedly extinguished the flames with a shirt and then watched the fire grow from a bench outside the subway car.

Last week, a grand jury indicted Mr. Zapeta, who claims to have no memory of the incident, on four counts of murder and one count of arson.

It took authorities more than a week to fully identify the body.

Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, said at a press conference before the investigation that authorities had been working to collect DNA and fingerprint evidence from Ms. Kawam’s remains.

“It’s a priority for me, for my office, for the police department to identify this woman, so we can notify her family,” Gonzalez said.

False and unverified information about her, including a fake AI-generated picture, circulated online as authorities worked.

There has also been an outpouring of support, including a vigil held for the then-unidentified victim last week.

Police say Ms. Kawam was motionless, apparently asleep, on a subway train stopped at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn early Dec. 22 when Mr. Zapeta allegedly approached her with a lighter.

The pair never interacted, and police believe they did not know each other.

The video appears to show the suspect waving a shirt at her in an apparent effort to dampen the flames, rather than put them out. Then he gets out of the subway car and watches the fire from a bench on the platform.

Jessica Tisch, New York’s police commissioner, said the smell of smoke drew police officers and Metropolitan Transit Authority personnel to the fire where they extinguished the flames.

“Unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect had been on the scene and was sitting on a bench on the platform just outside the train car,” Ms Tisch said.

Authorities pronounced Ms Kawam dead at the scene.

Ms Tisch described the incident as “one of the most depraved crimes a person could commit against another human being”.

At a preliminary hearing Tuesday, prosecutor Ari Rottenberg said Zapeta told investigators he had been drinking and did not remember the incident, but identified himself in photos and surveillance videos showing the fire lit.

Mr. Zapeta, who is originally from Guatemala, was deported from the United States in 2018 and later re-entered the country illegally, immigration authorities said.

He is due back in court Jan. 7, prosecutors said.