New York police have arrested a suspect accused of killing a female subway passenger by setting her on fire Sunday morning, according to police.
Around 7:30 a.m., the suspect approached the victim on a train car and intentionally set her on fire before fleeing the scene, according to the NYPD.
The suspect and the victim were both riding an F train to the end of the line at Stillwell Avenue in Brooklyn, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
Police believe the suspect used a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, “which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds,” Tisch said.
Police officers conducting a routine patrol at the station encountered the victim on fire inside a subway car, NYPD Det. Austin Glickman told CNN.
The officers “smelled and saw smoke” that prompted them to investigate, leading them to the subway car where they discovered the victim was on fire, Tisch said.
Officials extinguished the fire, and EMS responded to the scene and pronounced the female dead, according to the police.
“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 cameras on the responding officers produced a very clear detailed look at the killer,” Tisch said. She noted the suspect appeared calm when he initially approached the victim.
Police initially believed the victim was sleeping at the time of the attack. While it’s now unclear whether the victim was asleep, she was “motionless” when the attack began, police said Sunday. There was no interaction between the victim and the suspect during the attack, and police said they don’t believe they knew one another.
The video downloaded from the subway car showed the suspect setting alight a blanket the victim wore, and the fire expanded until the victim stood up while engulfed in flames, John Miller, CNN’s chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, said on “CNN Newsroom.”
The person who set the victim on fire appeared to retreat from the train car, sit on a bench at the station and watch as the victim stood and burned, according to Miller.
Body camera and surveillance images were key to apprehending the suspect, officials said in a news conference Sunday afternoon. Police released body camera images to the public and three high school-age New Yorkers recognized the suspect and called the police, Tisch said.
Officers located and arrested the suspect on another train in midtown Manhattan, without incident. He was arrested about eight hours after the incident, according to authorities.
“Our officers in District Two stopped that train in Herald Square, and (were) able to keep the doors closed, walk the train and place this very dangerous individual in custody,” NYPD Chief of Transit Joseph Gulotta said at the news conference.
The 34th Street–Herald Square station in bustling midtown Manhattan is next to the Macy’s department store that was featured in the 1947 film “Miracle on 34th Street.”
The suspect was found with a lighter in his pocket, the commissioner said.
Police are investigating the incident as a homicide, Glickman said. The suspect is being processed at a precinct in Brooklyn as of Sunday night, authorities say.
The victim has not yet been identified, Gulotta said.
Crime Stoppers offered up to $10,000 for information about the suspect.
No other passengers or first responders were injured in the incident, police said.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Sunday praised the people who helped alert authorities to the suspect.
“This type of depraved behavior has no place in our subways and we are committed to working hard to ensure there is swift justice for all victims of violent crime,” Adams said in a post on X.
Authorities at Sunday’s news conference noted the role technology played in quickly tracking down the suspect.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Wednesday announced efforts to bolster subway safety ahead of the holidays, deploying an additional 250 National Guard members to New York City and ensuring every subway car is outfitted with security cameras.
The “brutal murder” was captured by one of those cameras, according to Michael Kemper, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s chief security officer.
“The key thing was getting the identification through the body-worn cameras,” said Felipe Rodriguez, a retired NYPD detective sergeant and adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, on “CNN Newsroom” Sunday.
Hochul’s office says crime is down 10% since the governor announced a subway safety plan in May and 42% since January 2021, though a number of high-profile violent incidents in the subway system in recent years have left some residents uneasy.
The city was under a “Code Blue” alert Saturday night, when additional resources and shelter are deployed to help those vulnerable to freezing temperatures, especially homeless people, who sometimes seek shelter on the subway system during severe weather.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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