A man suspected of burning a woman alive on a New York subway train has been arrested. The victim, who was sleeping in a train car at the time of the incident this Sunday, did not survive, reports CBS News. According to the police, the suspect, arrested and taken into custody, is a man from Guatemala who arrived in the United States in 2018.
He was apprehended on another train on the same line (F), said the head of the New York police transit department, Joseph Gulotta, quoted by USA Today. The suspect was able to be identified thanks to surveillance cameras and the body cameras of the officers who responded to the scene. He was notably filmed at the scene of the tragedy, sitting on a bench on the quay. After a call for witnesses, three high school students raised the alarm.
“There is no interaction between the two”
As the train arrived at a station in Booklyn, the man approached his victim, before setting him on fire using what looked like a lighter. His clothes burned completely in a matter of seconds. Police later said they were not sure whether the woman was asleep at the time of the attack. “We are not 100% sure whether she is sleeping or not (in the images, Editor's note), but it appears that she is still. There is no interaction between the two,” said Joseph Gulotta. According to authorities, it is likely that the two people did not know each other.
Officers who were nearby were alerted by the odor and smoke. When they intervened inside the train, they discovered the victim “completely engulfed in flames,” said Jessica Tisch, New York City Police Commissioner. When emergency services arrived on the scene, the woman had already succumbed to her injuries. She has not yet been identified.
