The roommate of Sebastian Zapeta, the Guatemalan migrant who police say horrifically killed a woman by setting her on fire as she slept on an F train in Brooklyn, and then watched as she burned to death, said on Tuesday that Zapeta seemed like a “regular guy” who gave no indication that he could turn violent.
Raymont Robinson, 54, who slept across from Zapeta for three nights at Forbell Men’s Shelter in Brooklyn, and hung out with him several times, told the Daily News that Zapeta was “like an average guy,” who drank alcohol and smoked the synthetic drug K2 to the point where he would frequently space out in conversation, but did not otherwise act in a way that concerned him.
“He would sit in the park getting high right next to me,” Robinson said. “That’s how I knew he got high. It’s [K2], a synthetic drug. You smoke it just like marijuana. It smells like burning garbage.
“We slept side by side with each other. We hung out in the park a few times together. I mean, he seemed like an average guy, but I know that he get high.”
But, “it was never to where he got violent,” Robinson added.
In fact, Robinson said Zapeta was the kind of guy he would feel comfortable leaving his 6-year-old daughter with for a moment while he ran to the store. “That’s what he gave off,” he said. “He was like an average guy.”
“We spoke on occasion… He didn’t seem to be unusual or off board in any way. We had regular conversations,” Robinson said.
“He just said that he’s trying to get his life together. Like a normal person. He’s trying to get himself together. You know, he wanted to be on his own. He tried to live with other people. You know, they didn’t like certain things, they would put him out, he would sleep on the train sometimes, sometimes he’d sleep in the park. I mean, the regular life of being homeless.”
Zapeta, 33, came to the US from Guatemala in 2018, and was was deported, but subsequently reentered the country and made his was to New York City.
The identity of the woman fatally burned on the F train has still not been released.
Robinson said he spoke to Zapeta on Sunday just hours before Zapeta committed his heinous crime.
“We just got done eating breakfast together… He said, ‘I’m going to hustle.’ When he say he’s going to hustle, he’s going to open the door at Dunkin’ Donuts or McDonald’s. He opens the door and he looks for change.”
“That’s where I thought he was going. That’s what he normally go do. That’s his hustle. ‘I’m going to hustle, I’ll see you later on.’ I said, ‘All right, I’ll see you later on.’ I went this way, he went that way.”
Instead of his usual routine of holding the door open at Dunkin’ Donuts or McDonald’s for tips, though, Zapeta boarded the F train, riding it to the end of the line at Coney Island-Stillwell Ave., where he allegedly set fire to the sleeping woman as the train was stopped at the station. He then calmly fanned the flames with his T-shirt before sitting down on a bench on the platform to watch the woman burn to death inside the train, according to authorities.
Zapeta was initially able to slip away from the police, who didn’t realize he was the one who had allegedly started the fire, but his image was captured on their body cameras and later disseminated to the public. He was arrested later that afternoon at Herald Square after three teenagers recognized him and called 911.
After his arrest, Zapeta told police he “drinks a lot of liquor” and “doesn’t know what happened,” Assistant District Attorney Ari Rottenberg said Tuesday.
Robinson said he was shocked when he heard what Zapeta had done. When other residents told him what happened, “I didn’t believe it,” he said.
Then he saw the horrifying incident on the TV news.
“I still didn’t believe it,” he said.