Aiexpress – It was 57-year-old Debrina Kawam who died after being set on fire inside a New York City subway train, according to the police.
Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, told reporters that Kawam, who is from Toms River, New Jersey, spent a short time in a homeless shelter. Neither he nor the cops said if she was living on the streets.
Her recognition on Tuesday came more than a week after the attack on December 22 that shocked the country’s biggest city and made people worry about the safety of the public transit system.
Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, a 33-year-old Guatemalan man who was in the country illegally, was charged with murder and setting fires last week by a grand jury.
Police and prosecutors say the suspect went up to a woman sitting on a F train subway car early that morning, lit her on fire with a lighter, and used a shirt to fan the flames. Jessica Tisch, the commissioner of the New York Police Department, said the suspect sat on a platform bench near the train car while the woman burned before running away. His image was caught by the body cameras of the officers who responded.
Tisch said that the attack was “one of the worst crimes that a person could ever do to another person.”
Some people in charge said that Zapeta-Calil had been sent back to her home country in June 2018 after being removed. No one knew when or where he came back to the U.S. illegally.
He was arrested on December 23 after being seen by several high school kids on the subway in Midtown Manhattan.
Assistant DA Ari Rottenberg told the judge last week that Zapeta-Calil had identified himself in photos connected to the horrible attack. Rottenberg also said that the suspect told police he had no idea what had happened. USA TODAY has asked Zapeta-Calil’s lawyer for a comment, but they have not yet replied.
His next court date was set for January 7.
