A sleeping woman who was burned alive on a Brooklyn subway train — allegedly by an illegal Guatemalan immigrant — was homeless, a Big Apple advocacy group said.
The victim, who was so badly scorched that authorities have still not been able to identify her, will be the focus of a vigil planned at the Stillwell Avenue-Coney Island subway station on Thursday.
“This horrible and senseless murder of a homeless woman yet again underscores how badly our city and state have failed in addressing the inexcusable lack of affordable housing that relegates so many members of our community to homelessness, and how vulnerable people are when left to sleep in public spaces,” the Coalition for the Homeless said in a statement.
Illegal Guatemalan immigrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil told cops he was too high to remember lighting anyone on fire. Pool
The city medical examiner has been unable to identify the victim, but an advocacy group said she was homeless. Gregory P. Mango“It’s easy to forget that homeless individuals are far more likely to be victims than perpetrators of violent crime,” the statement said.
Sources said cops are also working under the assumption that the victim was homeless.
“Homeless lives matter,” the Rev. Kevin McCall, a city civil rights activist, said at a prayer vigil at the station on Thursday. “We’re calling on the police commissioner, we’re calling on the governor, we’re calling on the mayor.
“The slogan in this city is, ‘If you see something, say something.’ But no one said nothing. No one did nothing,” he said. “They just watched this young lady burn on fire, alive.”
More than a half dozen clergy members knelt on the subway platform and prayed for action during the vigil.
MTA station agent Benjamin Welcome, a 40-year veteran of the transit agency, said something needs to be done to make the city subways safer for everyone.
“We are in a city in crisis,” he told reporters. “Our slogan says, ‘I love New York’ …. I love this city, but if we love New York we have to care for everybody here, not just those that have, those that are working, but everyone.”
Meanwhile, an NYPD source said it could take days or even months to ID the tragic victim of Sunday’s fiery attack.
“They probably have to use dental records for identification, especially with arson victims,” the source said. “Typically they more than likely will get a hit from dental records.”
Illegal migrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, is being held without bail at Rikers Island on first-degree murder and arson charges in the horrific Sunday morning attack.
The woman, who sources said had a walker and several bags with her, was snoozing on the subway when Zapeta-Calil allegedly took a lighter out of his pocket and set her on fire.
Police said illegal immigrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil watched the flames after lighting a woman on fire.
Police said Sebastian Zapeta-Calil watched the victim burn but walked away when cops arrived at the scene. Obtained by the PostChilling video footage showed the accused killer fanning the flames and sitting calmly at a nearby bench as the woman was consumed by the flames — while bystanders did nothing to help.
The city coroner’s office has struggled to identify her through fingerprints because of the severe burns.
Residents at the Brooklyn shelter where Zapeta-Calil was living said he chain-smoked the synthetic drug K2 and drank heavily — with the migrant telling cops he was too high to remember the crime.
The Coalition for the Homeless said the tragedy, like the recent acquittal of subway vigilante Daniel Penny in the choking death of vagrant Jordan Neely last year, underscore the city’s failures.
“Tragedies like this – occurring only days after the Homeless Persons Memorial Day, and shortly after the Daniel Penny acquittal, which underscored how little our city values the lives of people without homes – are a devastating reminder of that fact,” the group’s statement said.
Additional reporting by Joe Marino and Aneeta Bhole.
