WPBN: In relation to the horrific killing of a lady who was set on fire and burned to death on a Brooklyn, New York, subway train on Sunday, a Guatemalan immigrant was taken into custody.
Fox News Digital was informed by sources that Sebastin Zapeta, age 33, was the subject of interest.
According to a high-level NYPD source, the person of interest entered the country illegally from Guatemala in 2018, during President-elect Trump’s first term, even though authorities did not identify him. Although information on the arrest was not accessible, the source stated that the person of interest had one previous arrest in Arizona and none in New York City.
At a press conference on Sunday night, New York Police Department (NYPD) authorities stated that no charges had been brought in the matter.
According to the NYPD, the murder occurred at around 7:30 a.m. at the Stillwell Avenue Subway station in Coney Island. At a news conference on Sunday night, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch gave additional details about the crime.
“As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim,” she stated. “The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds.”
While on patrol at the station, officers noticed and smelled smoke, which prompted them to look into the matter.
According to Tisch, the officers came to find a person completely consumed in flames inside the rail car. In the end, a fire extinguisher and an MTA employee helped extinguish the flames. According to the commissioner, the person was declared dead.
The individual of interest remained on the scene, according to Tisch, and was sitting on a bench on the platform directly outside the train car.
The responding cops’ body-worn cameras provided a clear and detailed view “at the killer,” Tisch said.
Three high school students in New York called 911 to say they identified the culprit after the public was given a description and images of him. When transit officers arrived to talk to the high school students, they also noticed a man on another moving train who fit the description given to the public.
Two transit officers boarded the train after it was told to halt at the next station, found the person of interest, and arrested him without any additional incident. Tisch went on to say that a lighter was discovered in the pocket of the person of interest.
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Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, expressed his condolences to the victim’s family for “this senseless killing.”
“Grateful to the young New Yorkers and transit officers who stepped up to help our NYPD make a quick arrest following this morning’s heinous and deadly subway attack,” Adams stated. “This type of depraved behavior has no place in our subways and we are committed to working hard to ensure there is swift justice for all victims of violent crime.”
One MTA employee claimed that the woman’s clothing appeared to have been “burnt off.”
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“I was just walking by. The police was there already. I didn’t see her in flames but that’s what I heard. It was out. They shut the lights off [in the car] so nobody could see,” the worker stated.
The woman’s body had already been extinguished when authorities investigated the site, and another individual was in the vicinity.
Police urge anyone with information regarding the incident to contact the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) in Spanish.
