A 33-year-old man from Guatemala was arrested Sunday afternoon by New York City police on charges of setting a sleeping woman on fire aboard a Brooklyn subway car, killing her, according to law enforcement sources.
The suspect was reportedly identified by a group of teenagers. He was still wearing the gray hooded sweatshirt, jeans, brown boots, and dark knit hat with a red band seen in images released by the NYPD. A $10,000 reward had been offered for information leading to his arrest.
The incident occurred just before 7:30 a.m. at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station. Officers conducting a routine patrol noticed smoke rising from a stationary F train. “We saw the smoke and immediately intervened,” said Transit Bureau Chief Joseph Gulotta. Emergency responders extinguished the flames, but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. As of early Monday morning, her identity had not yet been determined.
According to NYPD investigators, the woman was sleeping when the man, seated across from her, stood up, approached, and threw a lit match on her. Preliminary reports suggest he may have poured liquor on her before the attack. The two were strangers, Gulotta confirmed.
Police sources revealed that the suspect entered the United States in 2018 from Guatemala and was apprehended by border patrol agents in Arizona that June. His current immigration status remains unclear, but initial checks indicate he has no prior criminal record in New York State, apart from receiving a transit summons in May 2023.
An MTA spokeswoman confirmed that F train service was temporarily suspended in both directions between Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue and the Church Avenue and Kings Highway stations in the hours following the incident. “Expect F delays in both directions,” an official notice stated.
The attack come as data shows that in 2023, overall crime in the subway system decreased by nearly 3% compared to 2022, while daily ridership increased by 14%. According to a December 18 news release from New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s office, subway crime has dropped 42% since 2021, as ridership rose by 148%.
