The man accused of setting fire to a woman on board a Brooklyn train on Sunday morning remains in police custody and was hit with first- and second-degree murder charges Monday.

Law enforcement sources identified the suspect as Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, who was being detained at the 60th Precinct. Detectives escorted him from the Coney Island stationhouse on Dec. 23; wearing a Tyvek suit, Zapeta-Calil said nothing to reporters waiting outside while keeping his head down as he was loaded into a police car en route to Kings County Criminal Court for arraignment.

Zapeta-Calil — whom representatives of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said allegedly entered the U.S. illegally five years ago, was deported and somehow returned at an unknown time — allegedly walked up to a sleeping woman on board an F train at the Stillwell Avenue-Coney Island stop on the morning of Dec. 22 and set her clothing on fire with a lighter.

Video of the incident went viral and showed the woman standing on the train while engulfed in flames. Quick-acting officers and staff worked to extinguish the blaze, but the woman, whose identity is still unknown, died. 

Police officers cuffed Zapeta-Calil on Sunday afternoon in Herald Square after being spotted by a group of teens who recognized his image, which had been circulated from the scene.

When taken into custody, sources familiar with the case told amNewYork Metro, Zapeta-Calil was found to possess an ID from a Queens shelter. However, police noted his residence as being 338 Forbell St. in Brooklyn, which is listed as the Samaritan Daytop Village Forbell — an outpatient drug and alcohol rehab center.

Meanwhile, cops confirmed that Zapeta-Calil is an immigrant who illegally arrived in the U.S. from Guatemala. According to ICE, authorities removed him from the United States on June 7, 2018, back to Guatemala, yet they say he then reentered America at a later date where he then, at some point, made his way to New York.   

Police confirmed that both the victim and the suspect did not know one another, and the attack was completely unprovoked. Sources also state that the suspect only has one prior arrest in Arizona, which is believed to have been connected with his alleged illegal entry into America.

Over 24 hours after the sickening incident shocked the city, NYPD detectives are still working to identify the female victim — whose remains were so severely burned as to be unrecognizable.

The Federation of Italian American Organizations of Brooklyn (FIAO), a not-for-profit, charitable community service organization.

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Surveillance images captured by MTA cameras in the F train car allegedly show Sebastian Zapeta standing in the mostly empty F train car, his hands in his hoodie pockets, as flames engulf the woman.

A 50-YEAR-OLD MAN WAS SLASHED in DUMBO’s York Street subway station around 10 p.m. on Friday.

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FIREFIGHTERS BATTLED A fire at a Bed-Stuy apartment building on Sunday evening, on the fourth floor of 400 Tompkins Avenue.

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When I was sworn in as the 110^th mayor of New York City, I promised to “Get Stuff Done.” That has been our focus ever since coming into office, and this past year was no different.

But, in 2024, we did more than just get stuff done — we delivered for you, every day and everywhere. We drove down crime, put billions of dollars back into working-class New Yorkers’ pockets, and shattered records for the most jobs, small businesses, and affordable housing construction in our city’s history.

Thanks to our tireless police officers, New York remains the safest big city in America. Overall crime is down, with shootings, homicides, and transit crime all down by more than 6 percent this year. We put more police officers on our streets and took thousands of illegal guns, mopeds, and ATVs off of them.

We seized more than 6,000 illegal guns in 2024, bringing the total number of guns removed from the streets to 19,600 since January 2022. We also cracked down on car theft and had 12 straight months in reductions.

Safer streets and subways are just the start. Our “Charge Safe, Ride Safe” plan has helped cut lithium-ion battery fire deaths by 72 percent since we introduced it in 2023, while our “Operation Padlock to Protect” initiative has shut down more than 1,300 illegal cannabis and smoke shops.

To keep our young people safe and healthy, we delivered free, virtual therapy to 16,000 teenagers — largely in underserved neighborhoods — through our “Teenspace” initiative and sued the companies that own major social media platforms to hold them accountable for fueling the youth mental health crisis.

This year, we also focused on not only creating a safer city, but a more affordable one, too.

Affordability means having the resources and benefits to take care of expenses. We launched our “Money in Your Pocket” initiative to connect New Yorkers to dozens of federal, state, and local programs to save them money. And to build off of our reductions in child care costs, for the first time in city history, we extended 3K offers to every family who applied on time and enrolled 150,000 children in our early childhood education system.

Additionally, we expanded the New York City Earned Income Tax Credit and gave $345 million back to New Yorkers. And — to deliver even more tax relief — we announced our plan to “Axe the Tax for the Working Class” by eliminating and cutting city income taxes for working-class families and giving $63 million back to nearly 600,000 New Yorkers. We look forward to working with our partners in Albany to get it done.

We shattered affordable housing records for the second fiscal year in a row, unlocked billions of dollars for public housing, and moved a record 18,500 households from shelter into stable homes.

After decades of inaction, we passed the most pro-housing zoning change in city history. Our historic “City of Yes” housing plan will build up to 80,000 new homes for New Yorkers and invest $5 billion in housing and infrastructure.

We broke the jobs record, again and again, and oversaw the creation of 183,000 small businesses across the five boroughs — the most in city history. In 2024, New York City welcomed 65 million visitors to our city — the second highest number of tourists in our city’s history — and won the 2026 FIFA World Cup finals that will bring $2 billion in economic impact and create over 14,000 jobs for the New York-New Jersey region.

We invested in public safety, public health, and public spaces.

We issued rules to move 70 percent of all New York City trash off the streets and into container bins, took down hundreds of long-standing scaffolding sheds since launching our “Get Sheds Down” initiative, and created thousands of acres of new public space to make our city more welcoming to everyone — for New Yorkers and visitors alike.

Above all, we are just getting started. Next year, we will unveil bold new initiatives to create an even safer, more affordable city for all. Until then, I wish you a happy holiday season in the greatest city in the world.

The severe chill passing over Brooklyn will clear by noon on Tuesday, giving way to sunny and dry conditions in the afternoon.

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A WOMAN PASSED AWAY AFTER BEING SET ON FIRE in Coney Island at 7:29 a.m. Sunday, according to the NYPD. A suspect has been arrested.

The post Woman set on fire at Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue F train stop appeared first on Brooklyn Eagle.