The woman who was set on fire in a subway car in New York earlier this month, horrifying New Yorkers and renewing a debate over city safety, has been identified as 57-year-old Debrina Kawam, of Toms River, New Jersey.
The victim’s identity, released by the New York police department, came nine days after the fatal incident. Investigators had previously said they were using forensics and video surveillance to identify the victim.
Eric Adams, the New York mayor, said Kawam had had a “brief stint in our homeless shelter system” and that authorities had been in contact with her next of kin. He did not say when Kawam was in the homeless system.
The man accused of lighting her on fire, Sebastián Zapeta, was taken into custody hours after police disseminated images of a suspect in the woman’s death. He has since been charged with murder and arson and is expected to appear in court next week.
Prosecutors said Zapeta, a Guatelamalan immigrant, set fire to Kawam, who is believed to have been homeless, while she was sleeping inside a train car at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors said he used a lighter to start the fire and then used his shirt to fan the flames. Zapeta, who did not appear to know the victim, is facing one first-degree murder charge, three counts of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson.
“These are significant counts. Murder in the first degree carries the possibility of life without parole. It’s the most serious statute in New York state law, and my office is very confident about the evidence in this case and our ability to hold Zapeta accountable for his dastardly deeds,” Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, said when he announced the charges last week.
The suspect is also facing calls from Adams for additional federal charges to be brought.
“Lighting another human being on fire and watching them burn alive reflects a level of evil that cannot be tolerated,” the mayor’s office said in a statement last week.
The suspect was arrested hours after the attack. Police said the suspect had not left the scene as Kawam burned to death and was later apprehended wearing the same clothes and was found with a lighter in his pocket.
The difficulty that investigators had in identifying Kawam added “another level to a tragedy”, said Dave Giffen, director of the Coalition for the Homeless.
Giffen told the New York Times that the incident underscored a broader lack of interaction, or empathy for, the city’s homeless population.
“We can’t forget our humanity as a city,” he told the publication. “The fact that nobody knows who this woman is, is the saddest story I can imagine during the holidays.
