Police have arrested a man who set a woman on fire while she appeared to be sleeping on a New York City subway train early Sunday morning, killing her.
The woman, who has not been identified, sat motionless on a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue train station in Brooklyn around 7:30 am (1230 GMT) when an unknown man approached her and used a slide to stop her. clothes caught fire, the New York Police Department said. Police said there was no cooperation before the attack and they do not believe the two men knew each other.
The man got out of the car as the police who were patrolling the station rushed to the fire.
“What they saw was a person standing inside a train car full of flames,” New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference.
Police used fire extinguishers to put out the fire and the woman was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders, police said.
Police arrested the suspect, who has not been publicly identified, as he was riding the subway on Sunday.
Police said they are still investigating the identity of the victim and the motive for the attack.
About 4 million trips are taken each week on the city's subway system, where violent crime is rare. Since November, there have been nine reported subway homicides in 2024, compared to five during the same period in 2023, according to police data.
Earlier this month, a jury acquitted Daniel Penny of negligent homicide in the subway death of Jordan Neely, a homeless former Michael Jackson impersonator. Neely was yelling at people on the subway when Penny grabbed her from behind and held her back for several minutes.