Calls for New York to End Sanctuary Status Increase After Migrant Burns Woman Alive

In an unprecedented public attack that quickly spread on social media, a woman was set on fire and burned to death on a subway train in Brooklyn, New Yorkon Sunday. The suspect arrested in connection with her gruesome death is a formerly deported migrant from Guatemala, as calls to end New York’s sanctuary policy enacted under former Mayor Bill de Blasio escalate.

Sources previously identified the person of interest to Fox News Digital as Sebastin Zapeta, 33, who has been charged with first- and second-degree murder as well as arson in the first instance.

Zapeta was apprehended by the Border Patrol and subsequently deported by the Trump administration in June 2018 after he illegally crossed into Sonoita, Arizona, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Marie Ferguson told Fox News, adding that Zapeta later entered the United States illegally.

FAILED TO KILL WOMAN TO DEATH ON NYC SUBWAY IS FORMERLY DEPORTED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT

NYPD officers escort a suspect wanted in a homicide on the Coney Island F train from an area of ​​Lower Manhattan, Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024. (Courtesy: GN Miller/New York Post)

“It is now past time to end sanctuary city policies in New York,” he says The New York Post editorial wrote, adding that Zapeta “re-entered country and at some point thereafter headed for New York, where local policies guarantee shelter, food and other taxpayer-funded assistance to migrants and prohibit police from working with ICE to deport even those who commit new crimes.”

“In other words, he went where he would be most able to do whatever he wanted without much regard for the law or fear of consequences,” the board continued.

Surveillance video of Sunday’s attack showed the suspect approaching the woman, who was sitting motionless and possibly sleeping, while aboard a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station, then setting her on fire.

NYPD ARRESTS MIGRANT WHO SET WOMAN ON FIRE ON SUBWAY, THEN BURN HER TO DEATH

Police investigate at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn after a woman aboard a subway car was set on fire and died in New York, United States on December 22, 2024. Police believe the woman had been sleeping aboard the train, when a man approached her and set her on fire. She was pronounced dead at the scene. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim,” Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said during a news conference Sunday evening, adding that the female victim was in a sitting position. “The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which was fully engulfed within seconds.”

The suspect then remained at the scene, sitting on a bench just outside the train car as officers and a transit worker extinguished the flames. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.

After three high school-age New Yorkers called 911, the suspect was arrested hours after the attack while riding the same subway line. According to Tisch, he was found with a lighter in his pocket.

MEMBERS OF VENEZUELAN GANG LINKED TO FORCED APARTMENT TAKEOVERS ARRESTED IN NEW YORK CITY

Police investigate the scene where a woman died after being set on fire by a man aboard an MTA subway train as she slept at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York, United States on Sunday, December 22, 2024. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“People are tired of the revolving door of people constantly committing violent crimes and back on our streets … it’s not a safe haven for those who commit criminal acts,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told Fox News last week in a discussion. about the city’s sanctuary policy. “Violent individuals should not remain in our country.”

Adams is the first big-city mayor to side with would-be border czar Tom Homan against the wishes of his own city leaders, saying he will work with the Trump administration to deport migrant criminals from his city.

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This month and ahead of Sunday’s attack, Adams said there has been a 22-week drop in migrant arrivals to New York City, enabling the closure of many of the migrant shelters used for housing, even as the city has seen more than 225,000 migrants arrive since 2022, an increase that coincided with a spike at the southern border.

Fox News’ Greg Wehner contributed to this report.