Woman dies after being set on fire in New York subway

A man has been arrested in New York in connection with the death of a woman set on fire on a subway train in Brooklyn.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the incident Sunday as “one of the most depraved crimes a person can commit against another human being.”

She said the woman was on a stopped F train bound for Brooklyn when she was approached by a man who used a lighter to ignite her clothes.

The victim died on the spot, she said, adding that the suspect was arrested following a tip-off from a group of high school students while he was riding the metro later Sunday.

Police said the woman, who was not named, was on a subway car at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn around 7:30 a.m. local time (12:30 GMT) when a man approached her. ‘She.

Police said she was “motionless” when she was set on fire, but detectives were still determining if the victim was sleeping.

There was no interaction before the attack, police said, adding that they did not believe the two people knew each other.

The man got off the train as police officers patrolling the station rushed towards the firefighters.

“Officers were patrolling a higher level of this station, smelled and saw smoke and went to investigate,” Ms Tisch said.

“What they saw was a person standing inside the train car that was fully engulfed in flames.”

Police are still working to identify the victim and the motive for the attack.

“Unbeknownst to the responding officers, the suspect remained at the scene and was sitting on a bench on the platform just outside the train car,” Tisch added.

She said police were then able to get a “very clear and detailed” look at the man using body-worn cameras from responding officers.

The images were released by the New York Police (NYPD).

Later, three school-aged New Yorkers called 911 to report that they recognized the suspect on another train, Ms. Tisch told reporters.

The man was later located after officers boarded the train and walked through the subway cars.

He was arrested at the Herald Square station, located near the Empire State Building in Manhattan.

He was found with a lighter in his pocket, Ms Tisch said.

“I would like to thank the young people who called 911 to help us,” added the police commissioner.

“They saw something, they said something and they did something.”

The man, who has not been publicly identified, emigrated from Guatemala to the United States in 2018, said Joseph Gulotta of the NYPD.

Gulotta said detectives are still trying to determine if the victim was sleeping at the time of the incident.

“She is there, she is still,” added Mr. Gulotta.

“So to say whether she’s sleeping or not, we’re not 100 percent sure, but it looks like she’s still there.

“There is no interaction between the two. And when the incident happens, there is no interaction between them.”