A suspect who allegedly lit a sleeping passenger on fire inside a New York train sat on a bench and watched her burn to death in a shockingly brutal killing just three days before Christmas.
In a horrifying video obtained by The Post, the man calmly looks on as flames engulf the unidentified woman who stood inside the door of the subway car as the Coney Island F train idled at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station at around 7.30am on Sunday.
A transit cop walked by the open door, and seemed to pull out his radio and say something as his continued down the platform.
After the cop walked past, the suspect — who police say stands about five-foot, six-inches tall (168cm), weighs around 150 pounds (68kg) and is about 25 to 30 years-old — got up as if to walk away before the clip cut off.
The suspect was last seen wearing a gray hoodie, jeans, brown boots and a dark knit hat with a red band, the NYPD said.
Authorities are offering a $US10,000 ($16,000) reward for info that might lead to his arrest.
Horrifying video shows the woman burning as the man watches on. Picture: NY Post
Investigators believe that the woman was sleeping when the man — who was sitting across from the victim at the time — got up, walked over and tossed a match on her, sources said.
Cops extinguished the fire and EMS declared her dead on the scene.
She was found with liquor bottles surrounding her, though it was not immediately clear if they played any part in the fire, sources said.
Shocked commuters watched in horror as the woman’s body was carted out of the station in a black body bag just after 1pm.
“It’s incredible,” the stunned commuter said as the gurney was wheeled out of the station.
An MTA worker told The Post it looked like the woman’s clothes were “burnt off” completely.
The suspect is believed to be 25 to 30 years old. Picture: NYPD
Police are offering a $US10,000 reward. Picture: NYPD
“I was just walking by. The cops was there already. I didn’t see her in flames but that’s what I heard. It was out. They shut the lights off [in the car] so nobody could see,” the worker said.
Police were already processing the scene and the woman’s body had been extinguished when the man saw the grim sight, which clearly jolted him.
“That s**t is crazy — it’s only three days until Christmas,” he added. That’s messed up.”
Commuters continuously paused in their tracks while transferring trains to take in the horrific scene.
“It’s scary,” Brooklyn construction manager Alex Gureyev, 39 said. “It’s going downhill a bit. Everybody keeps saying it’s going back to the seventies. It’s a frequent occurrence — not like this, setting people on fire — but like the mugging, the killings, the fighting, the shootings, they’re really common nowadays. [It’s] very bad.”
Sunday morning’s horrifying attack comes as Governor Kathy Hochul deployed an additional 250 National Guard troops in New York City’s subways for the holiday season and beyond — swelling the New York Army National Guard’s $US100 million ($160 million) subway deployment to 1000 troops. Some eight million visitors were expected to travel to the Big Apple over the holidays.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Picture: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP
Ms Hochul insisted her controversial first deployment of National Guard troops into the subways in March has led to a dramatic drop in transit crime, noting subway crime has dipped 10 per cent.
Despite the Governor’s efforts, murders on New York City subways were up at least 60 per cent this year, according to data collected in September.
Eight people were killed on subway cars or in stations as of September 8 — up from just five from the same period last year, according to NYPD data.
The F train terror was only the latest attack in a bloody 24 hours on the New York City’s transit system.
An argument between five men on a southbound 7 train at Woodside Avenue and 61st Street in Queens turned deadly just after midnight Sunday.
During the fight, a 69-year-old man stabbed one person in the chest and another in the face, police said.
The man stabbed in the chest died at the hospital, police said. The suspect was in custody awaiting charges.
Several hours later at 4.30am, a northbound D train was put out of service after a passenger became irate and threw a can at a conductor. The conductor, a 38-year-old man, was taken to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and was in stable condition, police said.
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