Vigil honors woman burned to death on NYC subway train

BROOKLYN - A vigil was held for the woman who was burned to death inside a NYC subway train.

The vigil started at 4 p.m. at the Stillwell Avenue Train Station (F Line) in Coney Island. 

The identity of the woman is still unknown. FOX 5 NY was told that they did DNA testing, but they still can't identify the victim. All FOX 5 NY knows is that she was homeless. 

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Civil rights Leader Rev. Kevin McCall, Pastor Sharmine Bryd from Mt. Carmel Baptist Church and Bishop Alfred Phillips from the Coney Island Patrol are just a few people who will be hosting the vigil.

Faith leaders at the vigil said this shouldn't have happened, and the system failed her.

"We're calling on the police commissioner, the governor, and the mayor. The slogan in this city is, if you see something, say something. But no one said nothing. No one did nothing," McCall said. "They just watched this young lady burn on fire alive. Homeless lives matter. She was burnt up so bad that police couldn't even identify who she is."

Timeline of events: What happened on Sunday?

According to police, the victim, as well as the suspect, were both riding the F train just before 7:30 a.m. to the Stillwell Avenue Subway station in Coney Island on Sunday, Dec. 22. 

Police do not believe the two knew one another.

When the train stopped at the end of the line, police said the suspect calmly walked up to the seated woman and set her on fire with his lighter. The woman's clothing then "became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds," NYPD commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a Sunday press conference. 

"Officers who were on patrol on an upper level of that station smelled and saw smoke and went to investigate. What they saw was a person standing inside the train car fully engulfed in flames," Tisch said.

The woman, who has not been identified, was pronounced dead at the scene. 

"With the help of an MTA employee and a fire extinguisher, the flames were put out. Unfortunately, it was too late," Tisch said.

Transit police apprehended the suspect after receiving a report from three high school students who had recognized him. They had seen images of the man taken from surveillance and police body cam video and widely distributed by police.

"New Yorkers came through again," Tisch said, describing the case as "one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being."

Unbeknownst to the officers, the suspect had remained at the scene and was seated on a bench on the subway platform, just outside the train car, Tisch said. Body cameras worn by the officers caught a "very clear, detailed look" at the suspect and those images were publicly disseminated.

After later receiving a 911 call from the teenagers, other transit officers identified the suspect on another subway train and radioed ahead to the next station, where more officers kept the train doors closed, searched each car and ultimately apprehended him without incident, said Chief of Transit Joseph Gulotta. The suspect had a lighter in his pocket when he was taken into custody, Tisch said.

Who is the suspect?

Photo credit: Pool/Curtis Means

Police identified the suspect as 33-year-old Sebastian Zapeta-Calil. He was charged with murder, among other charges.

Zapeta-Calil was arrested by Border Patrol back on June 1, 2018, after he crossed illegally into Sonoita, Arizona. He was deported by the Trump administration just days later on June 7, ICE spokesperson Marie Ferguson told FOX News.

"Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, is an unlawfully present Guatemalan citizen who entered the United States without admission by an immigration official," a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said.

Ferguson added that Zapeta then re-entered the U.S. illegally "on an unknown date and location."