Dramatic video shows NYPD officers crowding a packed Manhattan subway train to pull over an accused Guatemalan migrant setting fire to a sleeping subway rider And watching him burn to death.
Officers were waiting on the platform of the 34th Street-Herald Square station, looking for the suspect, when they pounced on him inside a packed subway car, a video shared On Instagram show.
Two officers are seen pushing past passengers, attacking the alleged killer – who was sitting with his head down, possibly even sleeping.
A policeman then wrapped his arm around the suspect, causing him to fall to the ground as other officers rushed to assist.
About five officers can be seen restraining and handcuffing the Guatemala native while his face is pressed against a plastic subway seat.
Concerned and confused straphangers watch and step back as police yell at them to “get off” the train.
Before the video ends, people in the already packed subway car are seen struggling to get out of the mayhem.
According to Tisch and NYPD Transit Chief Joseph Gulotta, three high school students called police to report that they had seen the man at the J and York Street station on the F Line.
The police were called ahead, stopped the train at Herald Square and moved from car to car until they found the suspect and arrested him.
“Our officers in District Two stopped that train in Herald Square, and (they) were able to keep the doors closed, get the train moving, and keep this extremely dangerous individual in custody,” Gullotta said.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the suspect had a lighter in his pocket when he was picked up.
The 33-year-old suspect – whose name has not yet been released due to pending charges – is charged with setting fire to a sleeping subway rider On an idling F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn at approximately 7:30 a.m. on Sunday
“As the train stopped in the station, the suspect calmly walked over to the victim, who was in a seated position at the end of a subway car… and used what we believe to be a lighter to burn the victim’s clothing, which Completely burnt. It took a few seconds,” Tish said.
The horrifying video obtained by The Post shows the suspect calmly watching as flames engulf the still-unidentified woman, who was standing inside the open subway car door.
The patrolling policemen eventually reached the smoldering victim and extinguished the fire. The victim died on the spot.
“The responding officers were unaware that the suspect had remained at the scene and was sitting on a bench on the platform just outside the train car,” Tisch said.
“The body-worn cameras of the responding officers provided a very clear, detailed look at the killer.”
At around 1 pm, officials took a body bag containing the woman’s body out of the train and placed it in a medical examiner van.
The woman has not been identified yet.
Authorities said the alleged killer came to the United States from Guatemala in 2018. Border Patrol agents detained him in Arizona in June of that year, sources said.
His legal status was not immediately clear.
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