Connect with us

New York

Man Charged in NYC Subway Burning Pleads Not Guilty and Says He Was Drunk

Published

on

Man Charged in NYC Subway Burning Pleads Not Guilty and Says He Was Drunk

The man charged with burning a woman to death on the New York City subway last month told investigators that he did not remember the incident because he was blackout drunk at the time, according to a transcript of his interrogation released by prosecutors on Tuesday.

The man, Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, pleaded not guilty to five counts, including first- and second-degree murder, in a five-minute hearing on Tuesday morning in Kings County Supreme Criminal Court.

During his interrogation, which was conducted on the day of the attack, he described an all-night bender that ended in a blackout and then his arrest the next day in the death of the woman, Debrina Kawam.

“I am very sorry,” Mr. Zapeta-Calil said, according to the transcript, which was translated from Spanish. “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.”

Ms. Kawam, 57, was from New Jersey but had recently stayed in a shelter in the Bronx. She was asleep on an F train parked at the end of the line in Coney Island early on the morning of Dec. 22 when Mr. Zapeta-Calil walked up, pulled out a lighter and set her on fire, the police said.

Advertisement

The violence of Ms. Kawam’s death and the video that captured the scene horrified many New Yorkers who have grown concerned in recent months about the safety of the subway system, despite assurances from the police that crime there has fallen overall.

In the video, which spread widely on social media, Ms. Kawam is seen standing in the doorway of a subway car as flames engulf her body and people scream in terror just out of frame.

A police officer walks by, appearing not to react, although law enforcement officials have said he was securing the crime scene.

The video then shows a man rising from a subway bench holding a shirt. But instead of smothering the flames, he appears to fan them by waving the garment at Ms. Kawam.

She was burned so badly that it took the medical examiner’s office more than a week to identify her remains.

Advertisement

In his interrogation, Mr. Zapeta-Calil said he did not remember any of that.

He said he began drinking shortly after he left his job as a construction laborer the night before the killing. He had no memory of seeing Ms. Kawam, no memory of the attack and no memory of when or how he boarded the train, he said.

“Sometimes when I drink and erase the memory and I don’t know,” he told investigators. “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.”

Federal immigration officials said Mr. Zapeta-Calil is an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who had been deported in 2018. He later returned illegally to the United States and was living in a homeless shelter in Brooklyn for men with drug problems, according to the address he gave the police after his arrest.

Immediately after the attack, the Police Department circulated images of the assailant. The department quickly received a tip from a group of teenagers who believed they had seen the man on another train in Brooklyn.

Advertisement

Soon after, police officers boarded that train and detained Mr. Zapeta-Calil at the Herald Square station in Manhattan. As his interrogation wound down later that day, investigators at the 60th Precinct station house in Brooklyn showed him the grisly video of Ms. Kawam’s death.

They asked him: Did he recognize the man setting her on fire?

“Oh, damn,” Mr. Zapeta-Calil replied. “That’s me.”

Andy Newman and Sean Piccoli contributed reporting.

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

New York

Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

Published

on

Are You Smarter Than a Billionaire?

Over the course of one week, some of the richest people in the world descended on New York’s auction houses to purchase over $1 billion of art. It might have played out a little differently than you would have expected.

Can you guess which of these works sold for more?

Note: Listed sale prices include auction fees.

Image credits: “Untitled,” via Phillips; “Baby Boom,” via Christie’s Images LTD; “Hazy Sun,” With permission of the Renate, Hans & Maria Hofmann Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Petit Matin,” via Christie’s Images LTD; “Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio,” Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/SIAE, Rome; via Sotheby’s; “Baroque Egg with Bow (Orange/Magenta),” via Sotheby’s; “The Last Supper,” The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Campbell’s Soup I,” The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Miss January,” via Christie’s Images LTD; “Fingermalerei – Akt,” via Sotheby’s; “Grande tête mince (Grande tête de Diego),” Succession Alberto Giacometti/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY; via Sotheby’s; “Tête au long cou,” Succession Alberto Giacometti/ARS, NY/Photos: ADAGP Images/Paris 2025; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Revelacion,” Remedios Varo, Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VEGAP, Madrid; via Christie’s Images LTD; “Le jardin nocturne,” Foundation Paul Delvaux, Sint-Idesbald – ARS/SABAM Belgium; via Christie’s Images LTD.

Produced by Daniel Simmons-Ritchie.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

New York

Video: How a Mexican Navy Ship Crashed Into the Brooklyn Bridge

Published

on

Video: How a Mexican Navy Ship Crashed Into the Brooklyn Bridge

On Saturday, a Mexican Navy ship on a good will tour left a New York City pier bound for Iceland. Four minutes later, it crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge. [Spanish] “It’s falling!” [English] “No way!” Here’s what happened. The Cuauhtémoc had been docked on the Lower East Side of Manhattan for four days, open to visitors looking for a cultural experience. As the ship prepared to leave on Saturday night, a tugboat arrived to escort it out of its pier at 8:20 p.m. The ship’s bow, the front of the vessel, faced Manhattan, meaning it would need to back out of its berth into the East River. As the Cuauhtémoc pulled away from shore, the tugboat appeared to push the side of the ship, helping to pivot the bow south toward its intended route. The river was flowing northeast toward the Brooklyn Bridge and the wind was blowing in roughly the same direction, potentially pushing the ship toward a collision. Photos and videos suggest the tugboat was not tied to the ship, limiting its ability to pull the ship away from the bridge. The Cuauhtémoc began to drift north, back first, up the river. Dr. Salvatore Mercogliano, who’s an adjunct professor at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, told The Times that the ship appeared to be giving off a wake. This suggests its propellers may have been running in reverse, pushing it faster toward the bridge. The tugboat sped alongside the ship as it headed north, possibly trying to get in front of it and help the ship maneuver the other way. But it was unable to cut the ship off or reverse its course. All three masts crashed into the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge at approximately 8:24 p.m., four minutes after the ship had left the pier, causing the top sails to collapse. Crew members standing on the masts during the collision were thrown off entirely. Others remained hanging from their harnesses. A New York City patrol boat arrived about eight minutes after the collision, followed quickly by a fire department boat. Additional law enforcement and emergency medical services removed the wounded for treatment. According to the Mexican Navy, two of the 227 people aboard the ship were killed and 22 others were injured.

Continue Reading

New York

Audio Data Shows Newark Outage Problems Persisted Longer Than Officials Said

Published

on

Audio Data Shows Newark Outage Problems Persisted Longer Than Officials Said

On April 28, controllers at a Philadelphia facility managing air traffic for Newark Liberty International Airport and smaller regional airports in New Jersey suddenly lost radar and radio contact with planes in one of the busiest airspaces in the country.

On Monday, two weeks after the episode, Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, said that the radio returned “almost immediately,” while the radar took up to 90 seconds before it was operational.

Advertisement

A Times analysis of flight traffic data and air traffic control feed, however, reveals that controllers were struggling with communication issues for several minutes after transmissions first blacked out.

The episode resulted in multiple air traffic controllers requesting trauma leave, triggering severe flight delays at Newark that have continued for more than two weeks.

Several exchanges between pilots and controllers show how the outage played out.

Advertisement

Outage Begins

Air traffic recordings show that controllers at the Philadelphia facility first lost radio and radar communications for about a minute starting just before 1:27 p.m., after a controller called out to United Flight 1951, inbound from Phoenix.

Advertisement

The pilot of United 1951 replied to the controller’s call, but there was no answer for over a minute.

Advertisement

Two other planes reached out during the same period as United 1951 — a Boeing 777 inbound from Austria and headed to Newark, and a plane whose pilot called out to a controller, “Approach, are you there?” Their calls went unanswered as well.

Advertisement

Radio Resumes, With Unreliable Radar

From 1:27 to 1:28 p.m., radio communications between pilots and controllers resumed. But soon after, a controller was heard telling multiple aircraft about an ongoing radar outage that was preventing controllers from seeing aircraft on their radarscopes.

Advertisement

One of the planes affected by the radar issues was United Flight 674, a commercial passenger jet headed from Charleston to Newark.

Advertisement

Once the radio started operating again, some controllers switched from directing flights along their planned paths to instead providing contingency flight instructions.

Advertisement

At 1:28 p.m., the pilot of Flight N16NF, a high-end private jet, was called by a controller who said, “radar contact lost.” The pilot was then told to contact a different controller on another radio frequency.

About two and a half minutes later, the new controller, whose radar did appear to be functioning, instructed the pilot to steer towards a location that would be clear of other aircraft in case the radio communications dropped again.

Advertisement

Flight N426CB, a small private jet flying from Florida to New Jersey, was told to call a different radio frequency at Essex County Airport, known as Caldwell Airport, in northern New Jersey for navigational aid. That was in case the controllers in Philadelphia lost radio communications again.

Advertisement

Minutes Later, Radar Issues Persist

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, aircraft reappeared on radarscopes within 90 seconds of the outage’s start, but analysis of air traffic control recordings suggest that the radar remained unreliable for at least some radio frequencies for several minutes after the outage began around 1:27 p.m.

Advertisement

At 1:32 p.m., six minutes after the radio went quiet, Flight N824TP, a small private plane, contacted the controller to request clearance to enter “Class B” airspace — the type around the busiest airports in the country. The request was denied, and the pilot was asked to contact a different radio frequency.

Advertisement

1:32:43 PM

Advertisement

Pilot

Do I have Bravo clearance?

Advertisement

1:32:48 PM

Controller

Advertisement

You do not have a Bravo clearance. We lost our radar, and it’s not working correctly. …

If you want a Bravo clearance, you can just call the tower when you get closer.

1:32:59 PM

Advertisement

Pilot

I’ll wait for that frequency from you, OK?

Advertisement

1:33:03 PM

Controller

Advertisement

Look up the tower frequencies, and we don’t have a radar, so I don’t know where you are.

The last flight to land at Newark was at 1:44 p.m., but about half an hour after the outage began, a controller was still reporting communication problems.

Advertisement

“You’ll have to do that on your own navigation. Our radar and radios are unreliable at the moment,” a Philadelphia controller said to a small aircraft flying from Long Island around 1:54 p.m.

Since April 28, there has been an additional radar outage on May 9, which the F.A.A. also characterized as lasting about 90 seconds. Secretary Duffy has proposed a plan to modernize equipment in the coming months, but the shortage of trained staff members is likely to persist into next year.

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending