The story we told you about Sunday of the woman who was set afire on a New York City F train by a man who then sat and watched her burn to death just got that much more sickening as more information emerged about the alleged madman.
UPDATE: Arrest Made in Horrific NYC Subway Attack That Burned Woman Alive
Law enforcement officials have identified that man as Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who, according to federal immigration sources, first entered the country illegally on June 1, 2018, was deported a week later and snuck back into the United States at some point.
Once back in the U.S., Zapeta made his way to New York City and was housed at a migrant shelter, although it's still unclear how long he's been living there:
What is clear is that by April 2023 he was staying at a Days Inn hotel on 36th Street which had been converted into a migrant shelter — the first of four tax-funded facilities in the city.
When he was issued a transit ticket in 2023, he gave an address of a shelter on Randall’s Island, the sources said.
NEW: Per DHS sources, the suspect accused of burning a woman to death on a NYC subway is a Guatemalan illegal alien who was previously deported by the Trump administration and re-entered the U.S. illegally as a gotaway at an unknown time & location. I’m told he was arrested by… pic.twitter.com/bWkmwdwhOz
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) December 23, 2024
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed the details of Zepeta's illegal immigration history to Fox News:
Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, is an unlawfully present Guatemalan citizen who entered the United States without admission by an immigration official. U.S. Border Patrol in Sonoita, Arizona, encountered Zapeta June 1, 2018, and served him with an order of expedited removal and Enforcement and Removal Operations removed Zapeta from the U.S. to Guatemala June 7, 2010.
Zapeta unlawfully reentered the United States on an unknown date and location.
The New York City Police Department arrested Zapeta as part if its investigation into the murder of a woman on a subway in Coney Island, New York. Once his is charged and a holding is released, ERO will lodge an immigration detainers with the NYPD location where he is being held.
In other words, he entered illegally during Donald Trump's first time and was sent right back. It's not confirmed, of course, but it seems likely Zapeta reentered during Joe Biden's watch, seeing as there is no record of when or where the illegal alien reentered the country.
RedState reported Sunday that the Guatemalan illegal is suspected of lighting a woman on fire as she sat or slept on the stopped F train subway car at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station. Video taken by a bystander shows what appears to be Zepeta sitting on a bench on the platform, watching the woman, now fully engulfed in flames, die in the doorway of the train. Zapeta was apprehended a few hours later while on a different subway line in Manhattan.
The depravity of the crime has shocked the nation, and now the confirmation that Zapeta was here illegally has highlighted just how bad things have gotten during Biden's time in office. Donald Trump's incoming border czar, Tom Homan, who will oversee the promised mass deportations by Trump 2.0, has said the first illegals to be sent back to their countries will be those with criminal histories.
Tom Homan Sends CNN's Kasie Hunt Right Over the Edge With Deportation Remarks
Zapeta, who has yet to be charged, is now being held by the New York Police Department pending the results of the autopsy on the still-unidentified victim.
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