Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

Teen Sets Fire to Sleeping Man's Arm on G Train, Police Say

By Jeanmarie Evelly | January 20, 2017 4:27pm | Updated on January 23, 2017 8:42am
 A G train in NYC on August 1, 2013.
A G train in NYC on August 1, 2013.
View Full Caption
DNA/Stephanie Keith

LONG ISLAND CITY — A teen lit a sleeping man's jacket ablaze as he was riding the G train in Queens early Friday, and was busted after a transit worker overheard him talking about the crime on his cellphone, according to the NYPD.

The 18-year-old suspect, who has previously been arrested for arson, set fire to the 30-year-old man's right arm while he was napping on the train around 2:30 a.m.

The victim's jacket caught fire, causing burns to his arm and hand, police said.

The injured man was taken to Cornell Hospital with third degree burns, according to the NYPD. Police are still investigating how the suspect set the blaze.

He was arrested shortly after inside the Court Square station where a transit worker overheard him talking on his cellphone about the crime.

"I just lit this guy on fire," the suspect said, according to police.

The transit worker called the authorities, and police arrested the teen on assault, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and arson charges, police said.

The suspect had several past brushes with the law. He was arrested in December for using a boxcutter to slash the tires of two cars in Brooklyn in October 2016.

He was also busted for setting a garbage can and a part of a plastic fence on fire in Sunnyside on Oct. 19 of last year, police said.

In April of 2015, he was charged with assault and harassment after beating up a 15-year-old boy inside the bathroom at Queens Vocational and Technical High School in Long Island City, according to the NYPD.