Woman found on fire aboard subway dies, person of interest in custody: NYPD

NEW YORK (WPIX) — A woman is dead after police say she was lit on fire while riding a New York City subway on Sunday and a person of interest has been taken into custody.

The woman was asleep on a stopped F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn at around 7:30 a.m. Sunday when a stranger allegedly lit her on fire, police said.

Surveillance video from the subway car showed the man “calmly” walk up to the victim, who was seated motionless, possibly sleeping, and set her clothing on fire with what appeared to be a lighter. The woman's clothing then “became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.

Officers at the station reportedly smelled and saw smoke and observed the victim in the train car fully engulfed in flames, according to Tisch. The fire was extinguished and the woman was pronounced dead.

The woman has not yet been identified. Authorities said Sunday that investigators may have to rely on her teeth to identify the woman, who they say was badly burned.

Police say the suspect stayed on the scene and was seated on a bench on the platform outside the train car. Body-worn cameras from responding officers provided a detailed look at the suspect.

After pictures of the suspect were released, three high school-age New Yorkers called 911 saying they saw and recognized him on a train at the York Street station, police say. Officers stopped the train at Herald Square and took the person into custody.

The individual had a lighter in his pocket, police say.

"There must be strong, swift consequences on this person, and I use that term lightly, who committed this brutal, brutal homicide," MTA Security Chief Michael Kemper said during a Sunday press conference. "There is no room in civilized society for people like him to be walking around."

When questioned about the suspect, officials said he arrived in the U.S. from Guatemala in 2018. No additional information was made available.

The case marked the second fatality on a New York subway Sunday.

At 12:35 a.m., police responded to an emergency call for 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 slashes throughout his body. The older man was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital while the younger man was in stable condition, police said.

An investigation was continuing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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