Woman dies after being set on fire while sleeping on New York City subway; Person of interest taken into custody, police say
New York A woman was set on fire and died Sunday morning while sleeping in a New York City subway car, according to police.
A person was taken into custody later in the day in connection with the Brooklyn attack, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at an evening news conference.
Police have not yet been able to confirm the identity of the victim.
Police said the suspect came to the United States from Guatemala in 2018. No charges have been filed so far, but investigators are still questioning him and trying to determine a motive.
“I want you to know that this arrest is another in a series of joint operations involving different crimes between police and the public we serve,” Tisch said. “In today’s case, we were able to move from the initial Extremely clear and detailed images of the suspect were obtained from the incident. We then asked the media to disseminate these images widely so we could use the public viewing as a force multiplier – and here comes the New Yorker.”
Using images from security cameras on the train, police and the public got a very clear picture of the man they were looking for. Tish credited three high school New Yorkers who saw the suspect and called 911 for eventually capturing him.
The New York Police Department is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the incident.
NYPD describes how attack happened
The suspect is described as 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing 150 pounds, approximately 25 to 30 years old, and was wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, gray woolen hat, paint-splattered pants and tan boots at the time of the attack.
The man boarded the F train at the Stilwell Avenue station in Brooklyn’s Coney Island around 7:30 a.m., approached the sleeping woman and set her on fire with what was believed to be a lighter, Tisch said, adding that the victim His clothes were burned. It was completely engulfed within seconds.
Police said there did not appear to be any interaction between the victim and her attacker before he was set alight.
new york police department
Tisch said nearby police officers saw and smelled the smoke, immediately went to investigate, and used fire extinguishers to put out the flames with the help of MTA staff. Emergency services arrived shortly after and pronounced the woman dead on the train.
The suspect remained at the scene and was found sitting on a bench on the platform outside the train carriage. Tisch said he was later arrested without incident on another train stopped in Herald Square.
Tisch added that the suspect had a lighter in his pocket when he was found.
“This is an amazing job by the public and police working together. Once again, someone saw something, we caught it through technology in a number of ways and we were able to make a quick arrest for this heinous crime that took place behavior on our subway system,” said NYPD Transportation Commissioner Joseph Gulotta.
Anyone with any information is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline: 1-800-577-Tip(8477)or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). You can also submit a tip via their website or via DM on Twitter, @NYPDTips. All calls are kept confidential.
