arrest of a man suspected of having burned a woman alive in the metro

Police have arrested a man who they say set fire to a sleeping woman on a New York subway train on Sunday, December 22. The latter, who has not been identified, was dozing aboard a train in the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station in Brooklyn around 7:30 a.m. when an unknown person approached her and used a lighter to set his clothes on fire, the New York Police Department said. She said there was no interaction before the attack and the two people did not appear to know each other.

The man emigrated from Guatemala in 2018

“The fire spread in seconds”Officers used fire extinguishers to put out the fire but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency workers, police said.

“The suspect remained at the scene and was sitting on a bench on the platform, just outside the carriage”said Jessica Tisch, quoted by the BBC . Three New York high school students called 911 to report that they had recognized the suspect in another car, the police commissioner further clarified.

Identity of suspect and victim not yet revealed

The identities of the suspect and victim have not been released, but a police official. The suspect emigrated from Guatemala to the United States in 2018, NYPD Transportation Chief Joseph Gulotta said at a news conference. He was found with a lighter in his pocket, Jessica Tisch said. “I want to thank the young people who called 911 to help”.

About 4 million trips are made each weekday on the city's subway, where violent crime is relatively rare. As of November, nine homicides had been reported in the metro in 2024, compared to five during the same period in 2023, according to police data.