BREAKING: NYPD announces identity of woman torched to death in horrific NYC subway attack

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This report how now been updated to reveal the identity of the victim of this horrific attack.

Edit #2: The woman’s age has been correct. She was 57 years old. Earlier reports incorrectly stated she was 61.

From the New York Post:The straphanger who was burned to death on a Brooklyn F train in a horrific attack has been identified as a 57-year-old New Jersey woman, police announced Tuesday.

Debrina Kawam of Toms River was sleeping on the train at the Stillwell Avenue-Coney Island station 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 22 when she was set on fire — with illegal Guatemalan immigrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil now facing first-degree murder charges in the sick attack.

Horrifying video footage shows the accused killer fanning the flames as Kawam was consumed by the flames — and calmly watching the scorched victim from a bench on the platform.


Kawam was described as homeless, and had been living in New York City shelters since at least Sept. 9. She had been given a bed at the Franklin Williams Women’s Shelter in the Bronx on Nov. 30, but left on Dec. 2. She had a walker, and several bags with her on the train, when the illegal alien from Guatemala set her on fire as she was sleeping.

The woman’s body was so badly burned that the city medical examiner had a hard time trying to identify her.

According to immigration officials, Zapeta-Calil illegally crossed the border into the US in June 2018, and the Trump administration DEPORTED him back to Guatemala just days later. Then, at an unknown date, he snuck back into the country as a “gotaway,” and took up refuge in New York City – a sanctuary city – and has been living in New York City’s migrant shelter system since at least March 2023.

Zapeta-Calil has been charged with murder and arson, and is being held at Rikers Island without bail.

Journalist Collin Rugg shared a screenshot of what is believed to be Kawam’s Facebook account.  The Facebook profile says she studied business and marketing at Montclair State University in 1991, and was a former business and marketing manager at Lily Pharmacy.

Last week, Fox News reporter Bill Melugin had announced:

Per DHS sources, the suspect accused of burning a woman to death on a NYC subway is a Guatemalan illegal alien who was previously deported by the Trump administration and re-entered the U.S. illegally as a gotaway at an unknown time & location.

I’m told he was arrested by Border Patrol on 6/1/2018 after he crossed illegally into Arizona, and he was deported just days later on 6/7/2018. DHS has no record of him entering the U.S. after that, meaning he snuck back into the U.S. without any encounter with Border Patrol or CBP – but it’s unknown where and when that happened.

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