NEW YORK — The lady killed when she was set on fireplace in a Brooklyn subway automobile has been recognized by police, after utilizing fingerprint and dental data and DNA proof.
On Tuesday, NYPD officers recognized her as 57-year-old Debrina Kawam, initially from Toms River, New Jersey.
She is believed to have been homeless and was sleeping on the subway when she was set on fireplace.
Mayor Eric Adams mentioned Tuesday that Kawam briefly hung out within the metropolis’s shelter system.
He reiterated folks shouldn’t be dwelling within the subway system, “they need to be in a spot of care… we cant throw up our fingers and permit that to occur.”
Final week, a grand jury indicted the alleged subway arsonist on 4 counts of homicide — one rely of homicide within the first diploma, three counts of homicide within the second diploma and arson within the first diploma throughout a listening to Friday.
Sebastian Zapeta, 33, didn’t seem in courtroom for prosecutors’ temporary announcement of the indictment however he should seem when he’s arraigned on the indictment on Jan. 7.
Brooklyn District Legal professional Eric Gonzalez mentioned that “homicide within the first diploma carries the potential of life with out parole,” calling it a cost that’s “extra vital in state courtroom than at the moment in federal courtroom.”
“We consider very strongly that this case belongs within the state courtroom,” he mentioned, rapidly including, “we’ve a really sturdy working relationship with our federal companions and naturally we’ll all the time do what’s in the perfect pursuits” of the case.
Gonzalez thanked grand jurors who watched the graphic surveillance video of her dying recovered from a subway automobile.
“Proper across the vacation, to need to see the video and the pictures of a lady set on fireplace may be very onerous to cope with,” he mentioned. “This was a malicious deed, a sleeping susceptible lady on our subway system. This was intentional and we intend to show this in a courtroom of regulation.”
Police took Zapeta into custody whereas he was using a practice on the identical line later that day. Authorities say he claimed to not know what had occurred however recognized himself in pictures and surveillance video exhibiting the hearth being lit.
A Brooklyn tackle for Zapeta launched by police after his arrest matches a shelter that gives housing and substance abuse help.
Federal immigration officers mentioned he was deported in 2018 however returned to the U.S. illegally someday after that.
The harrowing episode has renewed issues about security within the nation’s largest mass transit system.
(The Related Press contributed to this report.)
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