Suspect arrested after woman fatally set on fire on New York subway

The attack took place on the F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station in Brooklyn.

Police in New York City have arrested a man they suspect set a woman on fire while she appeared to be asleep on the subway train, killing her.

The woman, who has not been identified, sat motionlessly on board a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station in Brooklyn at about 7:30am (12:30 GMT) when an unknown man calmly approached her and used a lighter to set her clothes on fire, the New York Police Department said.

Transit police apprehended the suspect after receiving a report from three high school students who had recognised the man. They had seen images of the suspect taken from surveillance and police body cam video and widely distributed by police.

The man got off the car as police officers on patrol in the station rushed to the blaze.

“New Yorkers came through again,” said New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch, who described the case as “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being”.

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 said they were still investigating the victim’s identity and the reason for the attack. They added there was no interaction before the attack and they did not believe the two people knew each other.

Cellphone video published on social media by a horrified onlooker also showed a man sitting on a bench on the platform a few steps away from the burning woman, dressed in a grey 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.

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.