A man has been arrested in connection with the death of a woman who was set on fire aboard a subway train in Brooklyn on Sunday, December 22, 2024. The incident, described by Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch as “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being,” has left authorities working to establish a motive.
According to police, the victim was on a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time when she was approached by a man who used a lighter to ignite her clothing. The fire quickly engulfed her. Despite officers’ efforts to extinguish the flames, the woman died at the scene.
“We’re still working to determine a possible motive for this attack,” Tisch said, adding that no charges had been filed as of yet. The woman’s identity has not been publicly released, and the police are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the attack.
NYPD’s Joseph Gulotta noted that the victim appeared “motionless” when she was set on fire, but detectives are still trying to determine if she was asleep at the time. “We’re not 100% sure,” Gulotta said. Authorities believe there was no interaction between the victim and the attacker before the incident, and they do not think the two were acquainted.
Police were alerted when officers patrolling the station smelled and saw smoke. Tisch described their response: “Officers were on patrol on an upper level of that station, smelled and saw smoke and went to investigate. What they saw was a person standing inside the train car fully engulfed in flames.”
The suspect fled the scene, but police quickly discovered that he had not gone far. “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,” Tisch explained. The responding officers’ body-worn cameras captured “very clear, detailed” images of the suspect, which were shared with the public by the New York Police Department (NYPD).
Later, three high school-aged individuals recognized the suspect on another subway train and called 911. “I want to thank the young people who called 911 to help,” Tisch said. “They saw something, they said something, and they did something.”
The man was located after officers boarded the train and walked through the subway carriages. He was arrested at Herald Square station, near the Empire State Building in Manhattan. Police recovered a lighter from his pocket, and he was taken into custody.
The suspect, who has not been publicly identified, emigrated from Guatemala to the U.S. in 2018, according to Gulotta.
The police are continuing to investigate the motive behind this tragic incident.
