The videos rocketed across social media. A woman stands motionless in the doorway of a subway car as flames engulf her body. A police officer strolls by, as people scream out of frame.
Then a man rises from a subway bench, holding a coat or blanket. He approaches the woman, but instead of trying to smother the flames, he waves the garment at her, appearing to fan them.
On Monday, Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, who appeared to be the man in the videos, was charged with first-degree murder and arson in the apparently random atrocity inside a parked F train in Coney Island early Sunday morning.
Federal immigration officials said he was an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who had been deported in 2018, only to illegally return to the United States. The address he gave the police after his arrest was a homeless shelter in Brooklyn for men with drug problems.
The woman, who has not yet been identified, also appeared to be homeless and was sleeping on the train, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an investigation. She did not appear to know her killer. When he boarded the train in Queens, she was already on it, and they rode the same train for the long journey to its terminus in Coney Island, the official said.
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