.png)
4 days ago
4
Five days after a woman believed to be homeless was burned to death by a passenger inside a New York City subway car, city officials have still not been able to confirm her identity.
Investigators may have to rely on dental records or DNA analysis to make an identification of the victim.
“It just adds another level to a tragedy,” David Giffen, director of the Coalition for the Homeless, told the New York Times. “At this point, we still don’t even know who she was and she can’t be mourned.”
Giffen said the incident underscored a broader lack of interaction, or empathy for, the city’s homeless. “We can’t forget our humanity as a city,” he told the outlet. “The fact that nobody knows who this woman is the saddest story I can imagine during the holidays.”
The shocking early-morning attack on a Brooklyn F train last Sunday has horrified the city, with questions being asked about why it appears no one stepped in to help, including a police officer at the scene who appeared to fail to assist the burning victim.
However, police have defended their actions. Joseph Gulotta, the chief of transit for the police department, commended the officer who he said stayed at the scene and “made sure he kept the crime scene the way it’s supposed to be, made sure he kept an eye on what was going on”.
“I think he did his job perfectly,” Gulotta added. “As his fellow officers went and got MTA workers, got fire extinguishers, and eventually were able to extinguish the individual.”
A small vigil was held on Thursday for the woman at the Stillwell Avenue station in Coney Island, Brooklyn, where the attack took place. The civil rights leader the Rev Kevin McCall said the woman “didn’t have to die” and called on New Yorkers to “do something” when they see injustice.
A Guatemalan, Sebastián Zapeta, 33, was quickly arrested on murder and arson charges in connection with the woman’s death. He has been charged on murder and arson charges, and is due to appear in court again on Friday.
Authorities allege Zapeta, who federal immigration officials say is a Guatemalan citizen who re-entered the US illegally after being deported in 2018, was seen in video approaching the woman on a stationary train and setting her clothing on fire.
The New York City police commissioner, Jessica Tisch, has described the case as “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being”.
Zapeta was identified by three high schoolers after recognizing the person in police pictures. He was arrested at a midtown Manhattan subway stop by police, allegedly with a lighter like the one used in the attack in his pocket.
Prosecutors allege that Zapeta set the woman’s clothing on fire and fanned the flames using a shirt. Zapeta then sat on a bench on the platform and watched as she burned, prosecutors allege.
But the suspect told authorities he didn’t know what happened, noting that he consumes alcohol and other substances. The assailant and victim, who died at the scene, are not believed to have known each other and did not interact before or during the incident, investigators said.
An address for Zapeta released by police after his arrest matches a shelter in Brooklyn that provides housing and substance abuse support.
