Man arrested for setting woman on fire inside NYC subway car

A suspect has been arrested for allegedly killing a woman after setting her on fire on a New York City subway train.

The unidentified victim was walking toward the Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn when a man set her clothes on fire with a lighter around 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 22, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch reported in a news conference.

According to the commissioner, the suspect “calmly walked up to the victim,” who was sitting in a sitting position at the end of the train car. He then set fire to her clothing and she was “completely engulfed in a matter of seconds.”

Officers on patrol on an upper level of the station “saw smoke” and rushed to the train and used a fire extinguisher to put out the flames. Unfortunately, the victim was pronounced dead at the scene, Tisch revealed. Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chief Security Officer Michael Kemper called it a “brutal, senseless murder,” according to the conference.

Surveillance footage from inside the subway car showed the assailant approach the woman without saying a word and ignite the blanket she was wrapped in. The suspect then sat on a bench and watched the woman burn, CNN and NBC News reported. New York City Mayor Eric Adams called the act “depraved” in a opinion on X.

Police were initially unaware that the suspect had remained at the scene, Tisch said at the news conference.

But their Bodycam footage provided a detailed profile of the suspect and images of the man in question were circulated. Three high school students subsequently identified him and called 911, Tisch said.

Transit officers spotted the man riding another train and he was arrested eight hours after the attack with charges pending, the New York Police Department confirmed, according to CNN and NBC News. According to the outlets, no other passengers were injured during the attack.

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New York City Mayor Eric Adams wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “This kind of depraved behavior has no place on our subways and we are committed to working hard to ensure that there is swift justice for all victims of violent crime.”

PEOPLE has reached out to the NYPD for further comment, but did not immediately hear back.