John Jefferson
Photos released by police of the alleged NYC subway fire suspect (NYPD Crime Stoppers).
A woman sleeping aboard a subway car in New York City was set on fire early Sunday morning by a random stranger who walked up to her and set her clothes ablaze with a lighter — engulfing her entire body in flames and killing her — before calmly walking off and watching her brutal demise from the platform, completely “unbeknownst” to cops who responded, police officials say.
The New York Police Department announced at a press conference on Sunday evening that a suspect with no known ties or connections to the victim, who has not been publicly identified, was taken into custody after a group of “high school-age New Yorkers” spotted him aboard the subway again later in the day and notified authorities. A manhunt had been underway for him and photos were released of the man on the F train where the woman was set on fire at around 7:30 a.m. Sunday, according to NYPD officials. He was caught on “another moving train” at Herald Square in midtown Manhattan, officials said.
“Our person of interest and victim were both riding an F train to the end of the line at Stillwell Avenue in Brooklyn,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters. “As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim, who was in a seated position at the end of a subway car. The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds.”
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 https://t.co/ncjhWP1AzG 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.
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