New York Metropolis police have an individual in custody who’s suspected to have set a girl on fireplace within the subway early Sunday after which watched from a bench as she turned engulfed in flames and died.
Surveillance video confirmed the person calmly strategy the lady, who was sitting immobile and should have been sleeping, whereas aboard a stationary F practice on the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station after which set her on fireplace.
Her clothes “turned absolutely engulfed in a matter of seconds,” stated New York Metropolis Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, describing the case as “probably the most wicked crimes one particular person might probably commit towards one other human being.” The person then sat on a close-by bench exterior the practice automobile and watched as officers and a transit employee extinguished the flames. The girl was pronounced useless on the scene.
The person was arrested hours later whereas driving on the identical subway line.
The suspect and sufferer didn’t seem to know one another and didn’t work together earlier than the incident, police stated.
What’s the most recent
Police have the person in custody however haven’t but launched his identification or filed costs.
Authorities had circulated pictures of the person from surveillance cameras and police physique digital camera movies taken on the crime scene. A bunch of highschool college students tipped off police to the person’s presence on a practice later Sunday, and he was taken into custody.
He was sporting the identical garments and had a lighter in his pocket when he apprehended, police stated.
What sort of police presence is there on the subway? Police patrol the New York Metropolis subways, and there are an enormous community of cameras in stations and in all subway vehicles. However the sheer dimension of the subway system — 472 stations with a number of entry factors and thousands and thousands of riders every day — make policing the transit system a logistical nightmare.
In Sunday’s incident, officers had been on the station however on an higher stage patrolling a distinct subway platform. They responded after seeing and smelling smoke coming from the decrease platform.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul earlier this yr directed members of the state’s Nationwide Guard to help with random bag checks at sure stations.
Is crime up on the subways?
Violent incidents within the subway usually put folks on edge, partially as a result of many New Yorkers take the practice a number of instances a day and sometimes have their very own experiences with uncomfortable interactions within the system.
Broadly, crime is down within the metropolis transit system this yr in comparison with the identical time interval in 2023. Information compiled by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority present a 6 per cent decline in what the company calls main felonies between January and November of this yr and 2023.
On the similar time, murders within the transit system are up, with 9 killings this yr by November in comparison with 5 in the identical time interval final yr.
Excessive-profile incidents on the practice, such because the case of Daniel Penny, a army veteran who choked an agitated New York subway rider and was acquitted of murder this month, usually entice nationwide consideration and additional unnerve passengers.
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