Woman set on fire aboard New York subway train, suspect allegedly watches her burn

Woman set on fire aboard New York subway

An unknown woman was set on fire aboard a subway train in New York at around 7.30am on Sunday (22 Dec), shocking commuters and staff alike.

According to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, the suspect “calmly walked up” to the sleeping victim as the train approached the station, and used a lighter to ignite her clothing.

Her clothes quickly “became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds”.

Police patrolling the area noticed smoke and rushed to the scene, finding the victim consumed by flames. Officers extinguished the fire, but the woman succumbed to her injuries at the scene.

The woman was also found to be surrounded by liquor bottles, although it is not clear if these contributed to the fire, wrote the New York Post.

Suspect seen watching the victim burn

Video footage showed the suspect standing calmly at the train doors, watching the woman burn.

In one clip, he appeared to walk away as a transit cop passed by, seemingly unnoticed.

However, in another video, the suspect was seen sitting on a nearby bench as cops yelled to the crowd, asking if they saw anything.

He pulled his hood up just before an officer talked to him and asked him to move away from the platform, thinking he was just a bystander.

Although officers did not immediately realise the suspect was still at the scene, their body cameras captured clear footage of him, said Commissioner Tisch.

Another video captured the woman on fire at the train doors while the suspected perpetrator attempted to fan the flames.

Suspect arrested on a different subway station

Later that day, three high schoolers spotted the suspect at another subway station and alerted the police.

Transit officers stopped the train on which he was riding, eventually finding him in one of the cars wearing the same clothes as during the attack.

A lighter was reportedly found in his pocket at the time of his arrest.

Police confirmed the suspect and the victim did not know each other. While the man had been detained by border patrol agents in Arizona in 2018, he had no prior criminal record in New York.

The subway line remained closed until the afternoon for investigations, with the victim’s body removed from the train at 1pm.

Authorities are continuing their inquiries into the shocking attack, which has left New Yorkers reeling.

Also read: Man in Taiwan stabs train seat with knife after dispute with passenger, manhunt ongoing

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Featured image adapted from @Breaking911 on X, @ViralNewsNYC on X