A gathering unfolded at the Stillwell Avenue Train Station (F Line) in Coney Island at 4 p.m. as community members and faith leaders held a vigil to honor an as-yet unnamed woman who was tragically burned to death inside a NYC subway train on Sunday. FOX 5 NY reports that despite DNA testing, the woman's identity remains unknown, with the only known detail being her state of homelessness.
During the vigil, civil rights Leader Rev. Kevin McCall voiced a powerful rebuke, saying, "We're calling on the police commissioner, the governor, and the mayor. The slogan in this city is, if you see something, say something. But no one said nothing. No one did nothing," in a statement obtained by FOX 5 NY. "They just watched this young lady burn on fire alive. Homeless lives matter. She was burnt up so bad that police couldn't even identify who she is."
The shocking incident began when the suspect, later identified as 33-year-old Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, approached the woman on the F train and, using a lighter, set her clothes ablaze, which quickly became fully engulfed in flames, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch detailed in a press conference; subsequently, the woman was pronounced dead at the scene, with police apprehending the suspect after a tip-off from three high school students who had seen media-disseminated images of him, relayed FOX 5 NY.
Zapeta-Calil's criminal charges include murder and arson, and his immigration status has become a point of contention: he had been deported by the Trump administration in 2018 but reentered the United States illegally at an unspecified time, according to the statements by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson, as reported by FOX 5 NY.
Adding gravitas to the evening's reflections, Rev. Kevin McCall, asserted the importance of intervention and hope, stating, "Her life mattered, and we believe that we can do something and that anyone can participate, and that is the power of prayer," in a report by NY1. MTA train operator Evangeline Byars expressed a similar concern for subway safety, advocating for more vigilant oversight, "We know what the solutions are. They need to re-institute the transit police to make sure all future classes are dedicated to the subway."
