Man Arrested After Allegedly Setting Woman On Fire In N.Y.C. Subway Car, Leading To Her Death

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OAN Staff Blake Wolf
9:45 AM – Monday, December 23, 2024

Authorities in New York City have arrested a suspect who allegedly set a sleeping woman on fire in a subway car, leading to her death.

Shocking video footage shows the suspect watching the woman burn to death while the train stood still at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station at around 7:30 a.m. on Sunday.

The suspect reportedly intentionally set the unidentified woman on fire while she slept, before fleeing the scene where he was later arrested, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. EMS arrived shortly after and pronounced the woman dead on the train, according to police.

“I want you to know that this apprehension was another in what has become a series of joint efforts involving different crimes between the police and the public we serve,” Tisch stated, adding that three high-school aged kids were credited with seeing the suspect and calling 911, leading to his arrest.

“In today’s case, we were able to get incredibly clear and detailed images of the suspect from the initial incident. Then, we asked the media to broadcast those images far and wide so we could use the viewing public as a force multiplier – and New Yorkers came through again,” she continued, adding that the suspect was found with a lighter in his pocket.

“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, and the body-worn camera on the responding officers produced a very clear detailed look at the killer,” Tisch added.

“This is amazing work done by the public and the police working together. Once again, someone saw something, we got it out through technology in numerous ways, and we were able to make a quick arrest on this nothing less than heinous crime that occurred in our subway system,” stated NYPD Chief of Transit Joseph Gulotta.

Officers first encountered the scene during a routine patrol at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station in Brooklyn, quickly extinguishing the fire before EMS could respond.

“It just looked like all the clothes were burnt off,” one of the MTA workers told the New York Post. “I was just walking by. The cops was there already. I didn’t see her in flames but that’s what I heard. It was out. They shut the lights off [in the car] so nobody could see.”

“That s–t is crazy — it’s only three days until Christmas,” he continued. “That’s messed up.”

The extreme act of violence follows New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s (D-N.Y.) claim that deploying more National Guard troops to the subway system has curbed transit crime, despite a reported 60% rise in subway murders this year.

“It’s going downhill a bit,” stated Alex Gureyev, a 39-year-old New Yorker who witnessed the incident, according to the New York Post.

“Everybody keeps saying it’s going back to the seventies. It’s a frequent occurrence — not like this, setting people on fire — but like the mugging, the killings, the fighting, the shootings, they’re really common nowadays. [It’s] very bad,” he added.

New York Police Department data revealed that eight people have been killed on subway cars or in stations as of September 8^th, up from just five within the same period last year.

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