A masked serial arsonist callously set a blaze subsequent to a dozing subway passenger throughout a weird hour-long spree throughout Manhattan and Queens final week, police mentioned.
The firebug first lit a parked NYPD police automotive on hearth close to Metropolis Corridor at round 2:20 a.m. in entrance of 254 Broadway on Jan. 10, in line with cops.
About quarter-hour later, the arsonist — seen in surveillance footage carrying a black puffer jacket, black hood, and again face masks — ignited one other empty automobile ablaze close to 14 Murray St., the NYPD mentioned.
Each autos had been left broken from the flames, cops mentioned.
In his third arson, the pyromaniac lit a paper cup on hearth and chucked it right into a rubbish can close to the Brooklyn Bridge-Metropolis Corridor prepare station.
The hearth starter then struck once more — torching a pile of rubbish subsequent to a sleeping straphanger on a northbound J prepare contained in the Woodhaven Avenue station round 3:40 a.m., in line with police and subway surveillance footage.
Eerie video launched by the NYPD exhibits the arsonist lurking over the subway passenger as flames rise subsequent to the unsuspecting man.
The firebug then casually walked off the prepare, the video exhibits.
Police mentioned the wave of fires is being investigated by the NYPD’s Arson and Explosion Unit.
The incidents come weeks after Guatemalan migrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, allegedly torched sleeping homeless girl Debrina Kawam, 57, to loss of life on a Brooklyn F prepare.
Anybody with data relating to this incident is requested to name the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The general public may submit their suggestions by logging onto the Crime Stoppers web site at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/, or on X @NYPDTips.
