Police in New York City arrested a man they said set a woman on fire while she appeared to be asleep on a subway train on Sunday morning, leading to her death.
The unidentified victim was sitting motionless on a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station in Brooklyn around 7:30am, according to the New York Police Department.
The police said that an unknown man calmly approached her and set her clothes on fire using a lighter.
Police also stated that there was no interaction between the two prior to the attack and indicated that they do not believe the individuals knew each other.
The man exited the train car as police officers on patrol in the subway station rushed to the blaze.
"What they saw was a person standing inside the train car fully engulfed in flames," New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference.
Cellphone video published on social media by a horrified onlooker showed a man sat on a bench on the platform a few steps away from the burning woman, dressed in a gray hoodie that resembles that worn by the suspect arrested later on Sunday.
Asked whether the man watching from the bench was the attacker, police said that responding officers had no reason to think he was a suspect when they rushed to the woman's aid.
The officers used fire extinguishers to put out the fire and the woman was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders, police said.
Police arrested a suspect, who has not been publicly identified, as he rode the subway later on Sunday.
Police said they were still investigating the victim's identity and the reason for the attack.
About four million trips are taken each weekday on the city's subway, where violent crime is relatively rare. As of November, there had been nine homicides reported on the subway in 2024, compared to five in the same period in 2023, according to police data.
Earlier this month, a jury acquitted Daniel Penny of criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely, a homeless former Michael Jackson impersonator, on the city's subway.
Neely had been shouting angrily at passengers on a subway train when Penny grabbed him from behind and restrained him in a chokehold for several minutes.
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