Photos released by police of the alleged NYC subway fire suspect (NYPD Crime Stoppers).
In New York City, a woman sleeping on a subway train was tragically attacked early on Sunday morning. A stranger approached her and deliberately set her clothes on fire using a lighter. This led to the woman being engulfed in flames and ultimately losing her life. Shockingly, the assailant then calmly exited the train and observed the horrific incident from the platform, unbeknownst to the police who arrived at the scene, as per police officials.
Following the incident, the New York Police Department held a press conference where they revealed that a suspect, unrelated to the victim and unidentified at that time, had been apprehended. A group of high school students noticed the suspect on the subway later in the day and promptly alerted the authorities. The manhunt for the suspect concluded when he was spotted on another train at Herald Square in midtown Manhattan and taken into custody.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch informed the media that both the person of interest and the victim had been traveling on an F train to its final stop at Stillwell Avenue in Brooklyn. Upon arrival at the station, the suspect approached the victim, who was seated in a subway car. Using a lighter, the suspect set fire to the victim’s clothing, causing it to quickly become engulfed in flames. The entire incident unfolded within seconds, resulting in the tragic outcome.
Horrifying cell phone footage captured by commuters and obtained by the New York Post shows the scene unfold. Officers who were already at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station responded after smelling smoke and extinguished the fire, but were unable to save the woman in time and she was pronounced dead at the scene. Tisch and other police and MTA officials described the incident as “heinous” and “senseless.”
Man suspected of setting sleeping NYC subway rider on fire, watching her burn to death arrested pic.twitter.com/ikOQkLTk0B
— New York Post (@nypost) December 22, 2024
“What [responding officers] saw was a person standing inside the train car, fully engulfed in flames,” Tisch said. “Unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect had stayed on the scene and was seated on a bench on the platform just outside the train car.”
Police were able to use the body cameras on the responding officers to get photos and clear images of the suspect, which they shared online through NYPD Crime Stoppers and local media outlets. The MTA and NYPD worked together to bring the suspect in, according to MTA Security Chief Michael Kemper.
“We all want to offer our sincere and deepest condolences to the family of the victim of this brutal, senseless homicide that occurred early this morning in Brooklyn,” Kemper told reporters on Sunday evening at the press conference. “A person of interest is in custody. Now we’re calling on the rest of the justice system to step up and do their jobs. There must be strong, swift consequences on this person — and I use that term lightly — who committed this brutal, brutal homicide. There is no room in civilized society for people like him to be walking around.”
While the identity of the suspect has not been released, police said on Sunday afternoon that they were searching for a person described as 25 to 30 years old.
“We don’t believe they knew each other,” said NYPD Chief of Transit Joseph Gulotta.
“She’s standing there. She’s motionless,” he said of the victim. “There’s no interaction between the two.”
Police said they would be releasing more information in the coming days on both the victim and the perpetrator as they continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding what happened and how they crossed paths.
