New York City police working to ID woman set ablaze in subway and “person of interest” in her death
New York City police were working Monday to identify the woman who died after being deliberately set on fire on a stationary subway train, as well as more information about a man now in police custody who is a “person of interest.” is involved in crime.
Chief of Transit Joseph Gulotta said Sunday that questions about the suspect’s background and whether the victim was homeless were all part of an active police investigation.
Transit police arrested the man, who has not yet been publicly identified, after receiving a report from three high school students who recognized the man. They had seen images of the suspect from police surveillance and bodycam videos, which were widely distributed by police.
“New Yorkers have come through again,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Sunday. She described the case as “one of the most depraved crimes that one person could commit against another human being.”
Tisch said the suspect and woman rode the subway to the end of the line in Brooklyn around 7:30 a.m. Sunday without any interaction.
After the train came to a stop, subway surveillance video showed the man “calmly” walking up to the victim, who was sitting motionless and possibly sleeping, and setting her clothing on fire with what appeared to be a lighter. The woman’s clothing “then became completely engulfed within seconds,” Tisch said.
The police do not assume that the two knew each other.
Officers on a routine patrol at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station smelled and saw smoke and discovered the woman on fire, standing in the middle of the subway. After the fire was extinguished, medical responders pronounced the woman dead at the scene.
Unbeknownst to officers, the suspect had remained at the scene and was sitting on a bench on the subway platform just outside the train car, Tisch said. Body cameras worn by the officers captured a “very clear, detailed look” at the suspect and that footage was released publicly.
After later receiving a 911 call from the teens, other transit officers identified the man on another subway car and radioed them to the next station, where more officers held the train doors closed, searched every car and finally found him without incident arrested, Gulotta said. The man had a lighter in his pocket when he was taken into custody, Tisch said.
The case was the second fatal accident on the New York subway on Sunday.
At 12:35 a.m., police responded to an emergency call of an assault in progress at the 61st Street-Woodside Station in Queens and found a 37-year-old man with a stab wound to his torso and a 26-year-old man. with multiple stripes all over its body. The older man was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, while the younger man was in stable condition, police said.
An investigation continued.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul did just that this year sent the New York National Guard members of the city’s subway system to help police randomly search passengers’ bags for weapons after a series of high-profile crimes on city trains. Hochul recently deployed additional members to help patrol during the holiday season.
About a year ago, Hochul supported funding to install video cameras on every train car in the New York subway system, said Michael Kemper, chief safety officer for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He and other officials on Sunday credited the cameras with locating the suspect so quickly.