Illegal Charged With Murder And Arson After Allegedly Setting Woman On Fire On NYC Subway

The illegal immigrant accused of setting a woman on fire on the New York City subway has been charged with murder and arson.

Sebastian Zapeta, 33, was arrested on Sunday and charged Monday with first- and second-degree murder and arson, CBS News reported. Zapeta was identified by three teenagers who recognized him from photos released by the New York Police Department.

Zapeta can be seen on footage watching the woman, who has not been identified, stand in the subway car while burning to death. The footage also shows other passengers and even a police officer walking by without stopping to help.

Investigators reportedly said Zapeta and the woman didn’t know each other and had no interaction before Zapeta lit a lighter and tossed it on her.

“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,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference on Sunday.

Officers and a transit worker grabbed a fire extinguisher and attempted to save the woman, but she died on the scene, CBS reported.

“Unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect had stayed on the scene and was seated on a bench on the platform just outside the train car, and the body worn cameras on the responding officers produced a very clear, detailed look at the killer,” Tisch said on Sunday. “Three high school age New Yorkers called 911 to say that they recognize the suspect. They saw something and they said something, and they did something.”

The suspect first entered the U.S. illegally in 2018 during the first Trump administration, but was deported within days, the New York Post reported. The man then re-entered the U.S. under the Biden administration’s lax border laws, according to reporter Nick Sortor.

???? #BREAKING: The Trump administration previously DEPORTED the Guatemalan migrant who set a woman on fire, per NYP

But when he re-entered the country illegally under Biden, he was RELEASED into the interior

INFURIATING.

The kller was even living in an NYC migrant shelter, and… pic.twitter.com/lJgIPmbw4c

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) December 23, 2024

The Post reported that it is unknown how long the suspect has been in New York, but law enforcement sources told the outlet that the man stayed at multiple taxpayer-funded migrant shelters around New York City. Those same sources told the Post that the suspect’s previous criminal history is “largely clean” except for entering the country illegally.

On the same day the woman was set on fire, two people were stabbed in a separate attack on the subway, with a man stabbed in the chest who later died and another man stabbed in the face.

After these attacks, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul put out a tweet claiming crime was down on the subways, which was immediately mocked on social media, The Daily Wire reported.

“In March, I took action to make our subways safer for the millions of people who take the trains each day. Since deploying the @NationalGuardNY to support @NYPDnews and @MTA safety efforts and adding cameras to all subway cars, crime is going down, and ridership is going up,” Hochul wrote on X.

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) criticized Hochul’s tweet after news of the stabbings and burning broke.

“Two hours ago, Kathy Hochul took a victory lap for making subways ‘safer.’ She congratulates herself on the same day two subway riders were stabbed in Queens (one in the face and one in the chest) and another was barbarically burned alive. Has there ever been a more tone-deaf Governor in the history of New York?” Torres posted.