An 18-year-old Harlem man accused of setting a 56-year-old man on fire as he slept on the subway was charged with arson resulting in injury in Federal District Court on Friday.
The police said in a statement that the victim suffered “significant burn injuries” in the fire, which began around 3 a.m. Monday aboard a northbound 3 train at Penn Station in Manhattan.
The 18-year-old, Hiram Carrero, stepped briefly onto the train and set the older man on fire before fleeing, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of New York. No one else was in the car, according to the complaint.
The victim, who was not named, got off one stop later, at Times Square, where the fire on his legs was “extinguished by members of law enforcement responding to the scene,” the complaint said. He was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, the police said.
Mr. Carrero appeared in court on Friday in street clothes, his long, dark hair tied into a ponytail. He did not enter a plea. His lawyer, Jennifer Brown, said he is a high school senior and the primary caretaker for his mother, who has serious medical issues and is largely homebound.
If he is convicted, Mr. Carrero faces a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years in prison and a maximum sentence of 40 years, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District.
During Friday’s proceedings, Judge Robert W. Lehrburger initially ordered Mr. Carrero to be released on a $100,000 bond for home detention with electronic monitoring via an ankle bracelet, on the condition that he undergo mental health and substance abuse evaluation and treatment.
But prosecutors quickly appealed that ruling, and a few hours later Judge Valerie E. Caproni ordered Mr. Carrero to be detained, saying he had “demonstrated” that he was dangerous.
Surveillance video showed a man identified as Mr. Carrero lighting a piece of paper on fire at one end of the subway car in which the victim was sleeping, the complaint said. The moment the victim was set on fire was not captured on video because a camera pointed toward him in the subway car was not functioning, according to the complaint.
A video on social media said to be of the aftermath of the burning showed a man wrapped in white cloth being transported from the subway platform by emergency workers. A pair of white sneakers and a pile of tattered clothing lay on the platform.
In a statement on Friday, Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner, said Mr. Carrero “showed a complete disregard for human life.”
“This attack is among the most serious acts of violence a person can commit,” she continued, “and it has no place in our city — above or below ground.”
According to the complaint, seats in the subway car were also damaged. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the system, receives federal funding.
Ms. Brown, Mr. Carrero’s lawyer, declined to comment on the case.
According to the complaint, Mr. Carrero was identified by comparing the surveillance video with body camera footage recorded during an interaction he had with the police in October when he was accused of running a red light on his bicycle and cited.
Monday’s attack recalled the killing almost one year ago of Debbie Kawam, a 57-year-old New Jersey woman whose clothing was set on fire inside a parked F train in Coney Island. Ms. Kawam was quickly engulfed in flames in a horrific scene captured on camera by bystanders and posted to social media.
Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, whom the authorities identified as an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, was charged with first-degree murder and arson.
Despite several shocking incidents of violence in the last few years, extreme events like the burnings are rare in the subway system, which has millions of daily riders. Ms. Tisch said in the news release that “the last five months have been the safest for subway riders in recorded history.”
Cassidy Jensen contributed reporting.
Camille Baker is a Times reporter covering New York City and its surrounding areas.
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