The 57-year-old woman who was the victim of a fatal fire lived in New Jersey. At first, police stated that Kawam, the victim was sixty-one. According to a lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Criminal Court, the New York City Office of the Medical Examiner concluded that the woman died by homicide due to heat burns and smoke inhalation.
The 33-year-old undocumented immigrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil was charged on Friday with first- and second-degree murder and arson in connection with the death of Kawam. He is scheduled to be arraigned on January 7 and has not yet entered a plea.
Zapeta-Calil noted his alcohol use while claiming he had no knowledge of the occurrence during his first court appearance. According to Assistant District Attorney Ari Rottenberg, Zapeta-Calil did recognise himself in images taken during the assault.
On the morning of December 22, when Kawam was sleeping on a F train heading towards the Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue subway station in Brooklyn, police claim Zapeta-Calil calmly approached her and used a lighter to light her clothing and the blanket that was wrapped around her.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams stated that officials have communicated with Kawam’s next of kin and that she had a “brief stint” in the city’s shelter system.
“Our underground system shouldn’t be inhabited by people. “They ought to be in a care facility,” Adams said. “And that shouldn’t have happened, regardless of where she lived.” It was almost than a week before authorities made Kawam’s identity public.
According to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez last week, investigators were attempting to identify her “badly burned” remains using sophisticated fingerprinting and DNA evidence.
The law enforcement sources said that, the victim’s identity was originally hampered by the first assumption that she was homeless. It was also said that the city’s most recent tube attack happened Tuesday afternoon when a 45-year-old man was waiting for the 1 train when he was pushed onto an oncoming train by an attacker.
According to the official, the man had a broken rib and a head injury when first responders arrived on the site. He was brought to Bellevue Hospital and is anticipated to live. The attacker was later arrested and will likely face charges related to the tube push shortly.
At his weekly news briefing on Tuesday, Adams discussed the sense of danger on the tube, pointing out that there are only six crimes committed there every day, despite the fact that four million people use it every day.
He also said that, ‘people don’t want to hear that if someone is burned in the tube system and you tell them that crime is down the lowest since 2009 — take out the Covid years when no one was on the system’. He said, “people are seeing and feeling what they’re reading if they are shoved to the tube system — on the tracks.” “So, our accomplishments are overshadowed.”
Police were able to identify a suspect thanks in large part to surveillance footage of the incident, which seemed to show Zapeta-Calil sitting on a seat across from the train vehicle and watching Kawan burn.
Following the release of surveillance and police body camera footage hours after the attack, three high school students identified the culprit and alerted the police, who approximately eight hours later discovered Zapeta-Calil aboard a Midtown Manhattan subway train.
The NYPD Chief of Transit, Joseph Gulotta, stated that he was discovered carrying a lighter in his pocket. Regarding the charges, Gonzalez stated, “These are significant counts.” ‘The penalty for first-degree murder is life in prison without the possibility of release. It is the most serious statute under New York state law, and my office is sure that Zapeta will be held accountable for his heinous actions based on the evidence in the case.’
Federal immigration officials claim that Zapeta-Calil, an unauthorised immigrant from Guatemala, was deported in 2018 and then unlawfully returned to the United States. According to the New York City Police Department, his most recent address in an arrest report was a homeless shelter for males dealing with substance abuse in Brooklyn.
