Man sets stranger on fire on downtown Manhattan subway train: cops
An unhinged man lit a cup of flammable liquid and threw it at a stranger, setting his shirt aflame and burning him on a downtown subway train in Manhattan on Saturday, cops said.
The 49-year-old firebug threw the flaming liquid on the 23-year-old stranger as the downtown 1 train pulled into the Houston St. station about 2:45 p.m., cops said.
The straphanger’s shirt caught fire, and his upper torso was burned.
Medics took the man to the burn unit at NewYork Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical Center where he was in stable condition, cops said.
Meanwhile, the firestarter fled the train before stealing a woman’s cell phone that she had dropped near the turnstile and then running to the street, cops said.
Cops tracked the woman’s cell phone to hunt down the suspect at Canal St. and Renwick St., where they took him into custody.
Charges for the suspect were still pending.
