NYC may ignore ICE detainer on illegal alien who allegedly set woman on fire in subway

Poor misunderstood illegal alien dirtbag

There are moments when the sheer barbarity of our modern world breaks through the numbing haze of daily life and demands our unflinching attention. Such a moment occurred in late December at the Coney Island subway station in Brooklyn, New York, where an illegal alien named Sebastian Zapeta, 33, allegedly committed an act of such unspeakable depravity that it shakes the very foundations of our civilized pretensions. 

According to authorities and video evidence, Zapeta set fire to a sleeping woman, Debrina Kawam, engulfing her in flames as she stood helpless in a subway car. He even went so far as to literally fan the flames as she was dying.

 "It’s the most depraved act that a human being can commit against another person," said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this week.

The details are as harrowing as they are grotesque. "The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds," NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch revealed at a press conference. 

Video footage captured by a fellow passenger shows Zapeta watching his victim burn alive, while others—including, astonishingly, a police officer—walked by without intervening. Officers and a transit worker eventually attempted to extinguish the flames, but Kawam perished at the scene, her body so ravaged that identification took over a week. Meanwhile, "unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect had stayed on the scene and was seated on a bench on the platform just outside the train car," Tisch noted, adding that the killer’s image was caught in stark clarity by police body cameras. Three high school students, to their credit, recognized Zapeta and alerted authorities.

Zapeta now faces charges of murder and arson, but the story does not end with his apprehension. For here emerges a secondary outrage, one that exposes the moral rot festering within certain corners of American governance. 

Secretary Noem, who visited the site of this atrocity, revealed on X a scandal that ought to incense every citizen who still believes in justice: "ICE lodged an immigration detainer with the NYC Department of Corrections to take this depraved alien into custody. Because of current sanctuary city policy, the corrections department has indicated it will NOT honor the detainer." 

Yes, you read that correctly—New York City officials, cloaked in the sanctimonious garb of progressive virtue, intend to defy federal authorities and shield this alleged scumbag from deportation proceedings. "This is disgusting," Noem rightly fumed. "New York politicians are allowing the murder of their own citizens." She called on New York Governor Hochul (D) to issue an emergency suspension of unconstitutional sanctuary protections, a plea that, as of now, seems destined to fall on deaf ears.

Let us consider the implications. Zapeta slipped into the United States illegally in 2018, was swiftly deported during the first Trump administration, and then re-entered undetected, eventually taking up residence in a New York migrant shelter. 

Sanctuary policies, designed ostensibly to protect the vulnerable, have instead become a shield for the vicious, thwarting detainers meant to ensure that men like Zapeta face the consequences of their crimes beyond our borders. In their refusal to cooperate with ICE, even in cases of violent offenders, New York’s leaders have made a chilling calculation: the ideological purity of their sanctuary dogma outweighs the lives of their own people. That is, the left places more importance on their ideology than the lives of their constituents. 

This is not mere policy disagreement—it is a betrayal of the social contract, a surrender to savagery under the guise of compassion. 

Debrina Kawam’s death, horrific in its randomness and brutality, stands as a rebuke to those who would prioritize political posturing over human lives. "NY Governor Hochul should impose an emergency suspension of sanctuary protection by executive order NOW," Noem insisted, and the urgency of her words echoes in the ashes of that subway car. For if we cannot protect our citizens from such evil—if we instead coddle it, excuse it, and release it back into our midst—then what is the point of our laws, our leaders, or our civilization itself?

The Democratic Party has become the party of lunatics.

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Illegal alien charged with setting sleeping woman on fire, pleads not guilty

El Scumbaggio

It happened on the F train in Brooklyn's Coney Island Stillwell Avenue station, on a train this writer has taken thousands of times. 

Sebastion Zapeta, 33, an illegal alien from Guatemala, allegedly [he is seen on video] lit a sleeping woman on fire, fanned the flames with his coat, and watched as she burned to death. He pleaded not guilty to murder and arson charges Tuesday.

The illegal alien was indicted on one count of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, and arson. Prosecutors said that he fanned the flames before sitting down to watch her burn as police and a subway worker tried to put out the fire.

According to court documents, Zapeta later told detectives he was in a drunken blackout during the attack. It's as if alcohol kills people just like guns do, and forks make people fat. 

"I am very sorry. I didn't mean to. But I really don't know, I don't know what happened, but I'm very sorry for that woman," he allegedly told detectives, according to a transcript from his interrogation translated from Spanish to English.

How did he not mean to burn her alive? He even fanned the damn flames.

Zapeta listened through an interpreter but remained silent during the 4-minute hearing. His lawyer, at the end, said his client needed medical attention, but additional details were not immediately available. It's possible that he got burned standing too close to his victim while fanning the flames. Poor guy.

The judge ordered him held without bail.

Zapeta entered the U.S. illegally in 2018 and was deported. Like so many Democratic hopeful voters, he returned to the U.S. at an unknown time and slithered to New York City. On December 22, he allegedly lit the sleeping Debrina Kawam, 57, on fire. She was from Toms River, New Jersey.

She was so badly burned it took over a week to identify her remains.

Zapeta told detectives he was drunk at the time of the slaying and often blacked out between his home and the subway platform or vice versa, trying to use that as an excuse for his actions.

"Sometimes, when I drink and erase the memory, and I don't known right?" he said, according to the transcript. "When I wake up, I'm already in the house, already sleeping. I wake up when I'm already at home. Or there are times when I wake up, and I'm already at the train station…or on the train…"

He's using the "Wolfman Excuse" it seems, but it doesn't excuse what he did.

You can read the transcript of Zapeta's interview with detectives:

Mayor Eric Adams (D) said surveillance video of the attack was so twisted he couldn't finish watching it.

According to the transcript, detectives played the clip for Zapeta and he claimed that he didn't remember any of it. He did, however, allegedly admit it showed him on the screen.

It seems like the guy's cognition to use a cigarette lighter to immolate the poor lady, and then fan the flames to ensure it would engulf her, demonstrates that he was sentient enough to know what he was doing and his blackout story is garbage, in my opinion.

"As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim," New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters at a news briefing. "The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds."

Then the man walked out of the car to a nearby waiting bench, sat down, and watched as help arrived, albeit too late.

 Responding officers were already in the station, and a transit worker grabbed a fire extinguisher. The suspect even appeared on body-cam video, Tisch said.

The suspect was arrested after three teenagers riding another subway train recognized him from a wanted poster and called 911. He was taken into custody at the next stop.

Zapeta faces a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole if convicted. Too bad for him that by the time his court date rolls around, Biden will be out of office and will not be able to pardon him. Maybe Biden can do it preemptively.

The suspect is due back in court on March 12.

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