A girl who died this month after being set on fireplace inside a New York subway practice has been recognized by police as a 57-year-old girl from New Jersey.
The girl, Debrina Kawam, was registered to an handle in Toms River, New Jersey, in keeping with New York Police Division (NYPD).
Officers had beforehand stated they have been utilizing forensics and video surveillance to attempt to piece collectively the identification of the sufferer.
She burned to death while apparently sleeping in a subway automotive in Brooklyn on Sunday 22 December.
A 33-year-old man, Sebastian Zapeta, was taken into custody hours after police despatched out pictures of a suspect who had been noticed by highschool college students.
Zapeta was charged with murder and arson on Friday and is being held in jail.
Federal immigration authorities say the suspect is from Guatemala and entered the US illegally.
New York Metropolis mayor Eric Adams stated right this moment the sufferer had had a “temporary stint in our homeless shelter system” sooner or later, and that authorities had contacted her subsequent of kin.
“Hearts exit to the household, a horrific incident to need to reside by way of,” Mr Adams stated throughout a information briefing on one other matter.
“It impacts on how New Yorkers really feel. But it surely actually reinforces what I have been saying: Folks shouldn’t be dwelling on our subway system, they need to be in a spot of care. Regardless of the place she lived, that ought to not have occurred.”
Prosecutors allege Zapeta set Kawam on fireplace on a stopped F practice at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station, fanned the flames with a shirt, after which sat on a platform bench and watched as she burned.
She was pronounced lifeless on the scene.
“This was a malicious deed. A sleeping, susceptible girl on our subway system,” Brooklyn district lawyer Eric Gonzalez stated after the cost was introduced.
Zapeta has but to enter a plea within the case.
He was arrested hours after the Kawam’s dying following the police receiving a tip off from a gaggle of highschool college students who recognised pictures of the suspect circulated by police.
