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Prosecutors have been charged in connection with the death of a woman who was burned on a subway train in New York.
On Friday, Sebastian Zapeta was charged with murder and arson, although he did not appear in a brief court hearing.
Mr Zapeta, aged 33, is accused of burning the woman, who may have been sleeping on the train, and setting fire to her shirt. The victim has not been identified.
The suspect has been held without bail since his arrest shortly after the crash.
The BBC has spoken to Zapeta’s lawyer for comment.
Police say the woman was sitting on a train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn on Sunday morning when she was approached by a man who used a flashlight to light her clothes.
There was no interaction between the two prior to the incident and police believe they did not know each other.
The police extinguished the fire, but the woman died on the spot.
The man got off the train as officers patrolling the area ran towards the fire, but he did not escape immediately and his face was captured on police cameras.
At a press conference earlier this week, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the incident as “one of the worst crimes a person can do to another person”.
“Unbeknownst to the responding officers, the suspect remained at the scene and sat on a bench on the platform outside the train car,” Ms Tisch said.
The suspect left the scene, and authorities say three high school students later identified him in photos distributed by police.
Zapeta, originally from Guatemala, was deported from the US in 2018 and later re-entered the country illegally, immigration officials said.
During a preliminary hearing Tuesday, prosecutor Ari Rottenberg said Zapeta told investigators he had been drinking and didn’t remember what happened, but he identified himself in photos and video of the fire.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has asked authorities to charge Zapeta with arson, in addition to the charges the state is facing. In his speech, the mayor said: “Setting someone on fire and seeing them burn alive shows the evil of things that we cannot tolerate.”
A vigil was held Thursday evening for the victim, who was so badly burned that police had difficulty identifying him.
False and unverified information about him, including a fake AI-generated photo, has been circulating on the Internet. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez told reporters Friday that authorities are still working to identify the woman using fingerprints and DNA.
Zapeta will be back in court on January 7, prosecutors said.
