(New York) The New York police announced Sunday that they had taken into custody a “person of interest” in the death, that same morning, of a woman who, according to them, may have asleep on a stationary subway train before being intentionally set on fire by a man she did not know.
Posted at 6:22 p.m.
Updated at 8:21 p.m.
Transit police apprehended the suspect after receiving a report from three high school students who recognized the man. They had seen footage of the suspect taken by police surveillance and body camera footage and widely distributed by law enforcement.
“New Yorkers have once again responded,” said New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who described the case as “one of the most evil crimes a person can commit against a other human being.”
Mme Tisch said the suspect and woman, both unidentified, were traveling on the subway without any interaction with each other until the line's terminus, in Brooklyn, around 7:30 a.m.
After the train stopped, surveillance video from the subway car showed the man “calmly” walk toward the victim, who was sitting motionless, possibly asleep, and set his clothes on fire with what appeared to be a lighter. The woman's clothes “were then completely swallowed up in a few seconds”, detailed the commissioner.
Police do not believe the two knew each other.
Officers on routine patrol at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station smelled and saw smoke and found the woman on fire, standing in the middle of the subway car. After the fire was extinguished, emergency medical personnel pronounced the woman dead at the scene.
Unbeknownst to the police, the suspect remained at the scene and was sitting on a bench on the subway platform, just outside the car, Ms.me Tisch. Body cameras worn by officers captured “a very clear and detailed view” of the suspect and those images were released publicly.
After later receiving a 911 call from teenagers, other transit officers identified the man on another subway train and radioed the next station, where other officers guarded the train doors closed, searched each car and finally apprehended it without incident, detailed the transport chief, Joseph Gulotta. The man had a lighter in his pocket when he was taken into custody, Commissioner Tisch said.
Gulotta said the investigation was continuing, including whether the woman was homeless and the suspect's background.
The case marked a second death on a New York subway on 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 the torso and a man 26 year old with multiple cuts all over his body. The older man was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, while the younger man was in stable condition, police said.
The investigation continues.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul sent members of the New York National Guard to the city's subways this year to help police conduct random searches of passengers' bags for weapons following of a series of high-profile crimes on the city's trains. Mme Hochul recently deployed additional members to help patrol during the holiday season.
About a year ago, the governor supported funding the installation of video cameras on every New York subway car, recalled Michael Kemper, head of security for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He and other officials credited cameras Sunday for helping find the suspect so quickly.
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