New York, Jan 1 US investigators have learned the name of a woman who was burned alive and beyond recognisability aboard a Brooklyn train last week in New York City.
The police identified the woman as Debrina Kawam, 61, of Toms River, New Jersey, Xinhua news agency reported quoting The New York Times.
She was the victim of an apparently random attack captured in videos that showed her bracing herself against the doorway of an F train in Coney Island, her body engulfed by flames. Hours later, Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, the 33-year-old man accused of attacking Kawam, was charged with first-degree murder and arson.
Investigators were using every means possible to identify the woman, Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, said at a news conference last week. They took her fingerprints and collected DNA evidence. They gathered surveillance footage from the subways, hoping to find a clear image of the woman's face before the fire.
"It's a priority for me, for my office, for the Police Department to identify this woman, so we can notify her family of what had happened to her," Gonzalez said.
The horrifying incident occurred on December 22, as the train approached the Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn.
During a press briefing, New York Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the attack as "one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being," adding that it claimed the life of an "innocent New Yorker."
"As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim, who was seated at the end of a subway car. Using what we believe to be a lighter, the suspect ignited the victim's clothing, which became fully engulfed in flames within seconds," Tisch said.
Officers on patrol at the station's upper level noticed smoke and went to investigate. They discovered the woman standing inside the train car, fully engulfed in flames.
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