The Guatemalan citizen charged Monday in the fiery death of a woman on the F train in Brooklyn had been deported by the United States six years ago, only to reenter the country at a later date, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency official said.
Sebastian Zapeta, 33, who was removed by ICE to Guatemala on June 7, 2018, reentered the U.S. on an unknown date and location, and subsequently made his way to New York City, Jeff Carter, a spokesman for ICE, said in a statement.
Zapeta now faces charges of murder in the first and second degrees, as well as arson, in a case that focuses renewed attention on safety in the subway, illegal immigration and outreach to those in distress in the subway system.
The woman killed in the attack has not yet been identified. NYPD officials said they were still trying to determine if she was sleeping in the subway and if she was homeless.
Authorities said a man set a woman on fire around 7:30 a.m. Sunday at the Stillwell Avenue station. The attacker allegedly ignited her clothing with a lighter, and the flames spread quickly through the subway car. Despite efforts by officers and an MTA employee to extinguish the fire, the woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said three “high-school-aged” students recognized the man from photos police released in the hours following the attack, leading to the arrest. Authorities said Zapeta possessed a lighter when he was taken into custody.
Little is known about Zapeta’s time in New York, but a spokesperson for Mayor Eric Adams said Zapeta arrived prior to the influx of immigrants that began in the spring of 2022, and that he’d been in and out of city-run shelters during that time.
“Yes, this is a country of immigrants. It’s a country of those who want to seek to pursue the American dream. But those who violate that pursuit, we need to immediately remove them from our country,” Adams said on Fox 5 Monday night. “After they served their time, I don’t want to turn them back into a country just to have them sneak back in and the family members are not receiving justice for what happened.”
According to authorities, Zapeta’s last known address was on Forbell Avenue in East New York, a location associated with a substance abuse treatment facility.
In light of reports that the accused had no serious criminal contact with police prior to Sunday’s violence, it’s unlikely he would have landed sooner on the radar of federal immigration enforcement officials.
New York’s so-called “sanctuary city” protections for immigrants lacking legal status largely bar local government officials from sharing information or otherwise cooperating with ICE officials, unless a serious violent crime is involved, a warrant has been secured, and only post-conviction.
Carter, the ICE spokesman, said federal enforcement and removal officers will lodge an immigration detainer request with the city seeking custody of Zapeta.
“They’re telling them that once this person goes through your criminal justice process and is sentenced, we are then interested, please hand him over to us,” said Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow and director of the Migration Policy Institute office at New York University School of Law.
“This is such a clear case that there is no doubt that he will be handed over,” Chishti said. “This is not a gray area.”
But, he said, that would almost certainly only happen following a conviction.
“Unless the federal government is interested in just deporting people who haven’t even been convicted,” Chishti said. “Which would be extremely unusual.”
Chishti noted that the issue of crime by undocumented immigrants has played into local and national debates on immigration, notwithstanding evidence that immigrants are far less likely to commit crimes than native-born residents.
But Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, a longtime community activist and Republican candidate for mayor, who has previously criticized the city’s sanctuary protections and Adams’ handling of the migrant crisis, and who has frequently linked illegal immigration with criminality, downplayed any link between the two in Sunday’s violence.
The issue, he said, was inadequate health care.
“Whether he should have been [in the U.S.] or shouldn’t have been here, when you light somebody on fire, and you watch like a pyromaniac as they burn, and you seem to get a vicarious thrill, you’re an emotionally disturbed person,” Sliwa said.
He added, “The subways are filled with emotionally disturbed persons who need to get mental health care.
This story has been updated with new comments from Mayor Eric Adams.
