Prosecutors have formally charged a man in the death of a woman who was set on fire in a New York City subway.
On Friday, Sebastian Zapeta was charged with murder and arson, although he did not appear for the brief court hearing.
Mr. Zapeta, 33, is accused of setting fire to the woman, who may have been sleeping on the train, and fanning the flames with a shirt. The victim has not been identified.
The suspect has been held without bail since his arrest shortly after the incident.
The BBC has contacted Mr Zapeta’s lawyer for comment.
According to police, the woman was sitting on a stationary train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn on Sunday morning when a man approached her and set her clothes on fire with a lighter.
There was no interaction between the two before the attack and police believe they did not know each other.
Officers extinguished the fire, but the woman died at the scene.
The man got off the train as police officers on patrol in the station rushed toward the fire, but he did not immediately flee and his face was captured on police body cameras.
At a press conference earlier this week, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the incident as “one of the worst crimes that one person could ever commit against another human being.”
“Unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect remained at the scene, sitting on a bench on the platform directly in front of the train car,” Ms. Tisch said.
The suspect then left the scene and authorities said three high school students later recognized him from images distributed by police.
Mr. Zapeta, originally from Guatemala, was deported from the United States in 2018 and later re-entered the country illegally, immigration authorities said.
In a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, prosecutor Ari Rottenberg said Mr. Zapeta told investigators he had been drinking and did not remember the incident, but identified himself in photos and surveillance video that showed the fire being lit.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has called on federal authorities to charge Mr. Zapeta with arson in addition to the state charges he currently faces. In a statement, the mayor said: “Setting another human being on fire and watching them burn alive reflects a level of evil that cannot be tolerated.”
A vigil was held Thursday evening for the victim, who suffered burns so severe that police had difficulty identifying her.
False and unverified information about her is circulating online, including a fake AI-generated image. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez told reporters Friday that authorities are still working to identify the woman using fingerprints and DNA.
Mr. Zapeta is scheduled to appear in court again on January 7, prosecutors said.
