Woman burned alive in Coney Island subway train identified as Debrina Kawam

Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News on Dec 31, 2024

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NEW YORK — The homeless woman torched to death at a Brooklyn subway stop has been identified as a 61-year-old woman from New Jersey, officials said Tuesday.

Debrina Kawam of Toms River, NJ, was set on fire as she slept in an F train stopped at the end of the line at Coney Island-Stillwell Ave. station about 7:30 a.m. Dec. 22.

Mayor Eric Adams said Tuesday that Kawam had been in and out of various city shelters.

Sebastian Zapeta, 33, was caught on camera sitting on a bench at the platform, watching his handiwork, before he fled the scene, according to cops.

Kawam’s body was so badly burned that investigators could not raise her fingerprints. They had to rely on dental records and DNA to get a match, police said.

Detectives also scoured the subway system looking for video that shows where and when Kawam stepped onto the F train, officials said.

Zapeta is a Guatemalan migrant who was living in a Brooklyn men’s shelter before his arrest.

He’s accused of setting Kawam on fire with a lighter and then “fanning the fire using a shirt,” Brooklyn Assistant District Attorney Ari Rottenberg said at his arraignment, where he was ordered held without bail.

“The deceased became entirely engulfed in flames,” Rottenberg said. “The defendant then stepped out of the train onto a platform and continued fanning the flames with a shirt.”

Zapeta then threw the shirt to the ground and sat down on a bench on the subway platform to watch his deadly handiwork, prosecutors say.

Horrifying video shows the suspect sitting on the bench calmly watching as the flames engulfed the woman, who got to her feet and was standing helplessly near the subway car’s open door.

A grand jury last week voted to charge Zapeta with first degree murder, meaning he is facing life without parole if convicted for the disturbing caught-on-camera killing.