U.S.! New York City subway burning death, burning a sleeping woman to death inside a New York City subway train, the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station attack, Woman set on fire in subway, check fraud, Felony elude law enforcement 2025.1.7-1.8

CANTON, Mich. — Canton Police body cameras were rolling as a fraud suspect sought to scam an 84-year-old woman of $25,000 on December 17. That was after he and another man allegedly conned her out of another $40,000 just days before.

Needless to say, the plot did not go as planned.

“It’s sad. You’ve got an elderly person who worked really hard their whole lives. To have their earnings taken from them is really terrible,” said Erin Downs.

Downs and Laura Hahn are the victim’s daughters. They monitor her accounts and were stunned to find three large withdrawals for a total of $65,000 in December.

“We contacted our mom and questioned why that had happened, and she told us we knew that wasn’t right. We contacted the local police department,” Downs said.

Investigators say a scammer cold-called the woman, pretending to be a senior fraud officer at her bank.

“They’re very convincing,” said Captain Joseph Bialy of the Canton Police Department. “They convinced the victim that there was an error in her account, and because of that error, she owed them money.”

That second suspect, who has not yet been caught, told the woman his assistant would collect the money from her home.

Li Biao, a Chinese national who police say is in the country illegally, was that bag man. He collected $40,000 from the woman on two separate occasions.

Canton Police entered the picture after the suspected scammers set up a third pickup for another $25,000. Officers waited at the woman’s home on the day of the exchange. When Biao arrived and got the money in hand, they sprang into action.

“It was nice to see a collaborative effort from the police department resulting in positive outcomes placing somebody in custody, especially with the circumstances surrounding this incident where an elderly victim was taken advantage of for quite a bit a sum of money,” said Captain Bialy. “So, for the Canton Police Department to get her back some of that money or at least stop the loss of money was very satisfying for us.”

Biao is facing a pair of felony charges for fraud and obstructing police. Downs and Hahn are hoping no one else experiences what their mother did.

“My recommendation for people in our situation would be really take as many preventative measures as you can even if you think your mom would never fall for that, your parents would never fall for that,” said Hahn.

Cyber security and fraud expert David Derigiotis of Flow Specialty says the case is a textbook example of social engineering.

“Social engineering is psychological manipulation. It’s motivating people to take some type of action that’s typically harmful to them. That’s what we saw in this case,” said Derigiotis. “Usually it’s impersonation of governmental authority, law enforcement. In this case, it was a ‘fraud official’ who they claimed to be. And they’re getting an individual to take action, pulling cash.”

Derigiotis says there are a few things to keep in mind if you receive a phone call like the 84-year-old victim did.

“Know that if you are prompted to take some immediate action where you don’t feel comfortable, where it’s an unsolicited communication that you didn’t initiate that text, email, phone call, hang up, delete it and reach out to the company separately.”

Canton police are still investigating this case—working to find the other parties involved. As for Li Biao, he is due back in court next week.

Sebastian Zapeta-Calil repeatedly told detectives he had no memory of an attack that killed a woman who was set ablaze on the New York City subway train he was riding the morning of December 22, according to court documents.

Then, investigators played surveillance video that allegedly caught him igniting the flames.

“Oh, damn, that’s me,” Zapeta-Calil said during questioning with police that was transcribed and translated, according to the documents.

“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,” Zapeta-Calil told police, according to the court documents.

Zapeta-Calil, 33, an undocumented migrant from Guatemala, pleaded not guilty to murder charges Tuesday in the death of Debrina Kawam, 57, and was ordered held without bail.

He was previously indicted on charges of first- and second-degree murder and arson in the killing. CNN has reached out to his lawyer for comment.

Police say Zapeta-Calil calmly walked up to Kawam as she was sleeping on an F train approaching the Coney Island–Stillwell Avenue subway station in Brooklyn and used a lighter to ignite her clothes and the blanket that was wrapped around her.

Kawam, who authorities say resided in New Jersey after a stint in New York’s shelter system, died by homicide caused by thermal injuries and smoke inhalation, according to a complaint filed in Brooklyn Criminal Court.

The attack has stoked fears among New Yorkers about safety on subways and in the city at large, after several high-profile, violent incidents in recent years.

“It is difficult to fathom what could lead someone to commit the atrocious and horrific murder with which this defendant is charged,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said Tuesday in a statement. “My office swiftly obtained an indictment, and we are determined to exact the most severe punishment for this heinous and inhumane act. Ms. Kawam and her loved ones deserve a measure of justice and New Yorkers deserve to feel safe in the subways.”

After Zapeta-Calil was indicted, Gonzalez noted the defendant faces the possibility of life in prison without parole if convicted of first-degree murder.

During an initial court appearance in December, Zapeta-Calil claimed to have no knowledge of the incident, noting his alcohol consumption.

During questioning with police, Zapeta-Calil said he sometimes drinks and loses his memory of events, waking up at home or on a train with no memory of how he got there, according to court documents.

He added that he sometimes sleeps on the subway. On the morning of the incident, he said he woke up on the F train but did not remember how he arrived there, the documents show.

Surveillance video of the incident – which appeared to show Zapeta-Calil sitting on a bench across from the subway car and watching Kawan burn – played a critical role in helping police find a suspect.

Hours after the attack, authorities released images from surveillance and police body cameras, and three high school students recognized the suspect and reported it to police, who found Zapeta-Calil on a subway train in Midtown Manhattan about eight hours later. He was found with a lighter in his pocket, New York City Police Department Chief of Transit Joseph Gulotta said.

Zapeta-Calil was deported in 2018 and subsequently returned to the US illegally, according to federal immigration authorities. His most recent address in an arrest report was listed as a homeless shelter in Brooklyn for men struggling with substance abuse, the NYPD said.

Zapeta-Calil told police that he’s lived in the US for five years and has been working as a laborer in Queens, according to court documents.

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Kawam grew up in Little Falls, New Jersey, and attended Passaic Valley Regional High School, where she was a popular student, cheerleader and pancake house worker, her childhood and young adult friends told The New York Times.

In her 20s, she traveled to Jamaica, Mexico, the Bahamas and Las Vegas with friends and worked a variety of jobs that she never held too long, a friend, Cindy Certosimo Bowie told the Times. The Associated Press has left messages for possible relatives.

In the early 2000s, she worked at the pharmaceutical giant Merck, but her life took a rocky turn at some point. She went into debt, had liens filed against her and filed for bankruptcy, according to public records. A Debrina Kawam listed in court records also was arrested several times in minor crimes.

In her bankruptcy filed in 2008, she listed more than $90,000 in debt, no income and assets that included her clothes, a futon, a television and a Dodge Neon worth $800.

She briefly stayed at a New York homeless shelter after moving to the city recently, according to the Department of Social Services. It didn’t say when.

The killing has renewed discussion about safety in the nation’s largest mass transit system even as crime in the subway remains relatively rare.

The suspect told police he didn’t remember what happened on the day of the murder

THE man accused of lighting a sleeping woman on fire on the subway and watching her burn to death gave a chilling glare after pleading not guilty to the horrific crime.

Sebastian Zapeta-Calil stared down reporters as he left the courthouse on Tuesday after being arraigned on four counts of murder and one count of arson.

Zapeta-Calil, 33, was ordered to be held without bail at his arraignment.

Cops say Zapeta-Calil set fire to a woman inside a subway train on the morning of December 22, using a lighter to ignite her clothes and a blanket she was wearing as she slept.

The attack left the woman so badly disfigured that it took days for officials to identify the woman as 57-year-old Debrina Kawam.

Kawam, a New Jersey resident who spent time in New York City’s homeless shelters, died of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries, the medical examiner’s office said.

Sickening footage appeared to show Zapeta-Calil fanning the woman’s flames before he sat on a bench on the subway platform in Brooklyn to watch the horrific scene.

Zapeta-Calil was arrested on a jam-packed subway car hours later after three high school students recognized the suspect from pictures released by the police.

After he was in handcuffs, Zapeta-Calil confirmed to cops that he was the man in surveillance footage and videos of the fire.

‘I AM VERY SORRY’
However, he said he couldn’t remember what happened because he had been drinking heavily.

“Sometimes when I drink and erase the memory, and I don’t know, right?” Zapeta-Calil told cops, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the New York Post.

“When I wake up I’m already in the house, already sleeping. I wake up when I’m already home, or there are times when I wake up and I’m already at the train station.”

“I was drunk,” he reportedly said.

“I drink in the afternoons.”

Zapeta-Calil said he got off work as a roofer on Saturday night and went straight to a bar in Queens, where he drank beer and tequila well into the morning of the crime.

“I am very sorry,” he reportedly told NYPD detectives.

“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 had a lighter in his pocket when he was arrested, cops said.

INSIDE THE SUSPECT’S LIFE
Zapeta-Calil was deported from the US after being arrested at the Mexican border in Arizona on June 1, 2018.

At some point after being kicked out of the country, Zapeta-Calil illegally re-entered the US.

He was living at a shelter for men struggling with substance abuse in the city at the time of the crime.

Zapeta-Calil was reportedly a heavy drinker who had a habit of smoking K2, an illegal synthetic cannabinoid, people at the shelter told the New York Post.

“He smoked K2, drank and bugged out,” Raymond Robinson, who slept next to Zapeta-Calil at the shelter, told the outlet.

“My office is very confident about the evidence in the case and to hold Zapeta accountable for his dastardly deeds”
Eric Gonzalez Brooklyn District Attorney

“He would bug out and talk to himself when he was high, but he never harmed nobody or himself. When he wasn’t high he’d talk like we’re talking regular.”

Robinson said Zapeta-Calil smoked about $30 worth of K2 every day.

He said on the day of the crime, Zapeta-Calil woke up ate breakfast with his roommates like normal.

‘SIGNIFICANT’ CHARGES
Zapeta-Calil could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if he’s found guilty on the first and second-degree murder charges against him as well as the arson charge.

“These are significant counts,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said after the suspect’s indictment.

“Murder in the first degree carries the possibility of life without parole.

“It’s the most serious statute in New York state law and my office is very confident about the evidence in the case and to hold Zapeta accountable for his dastardly deeds.”

Zapeta-Calil is set to appear in court again on March 12.