An 18-year-old Manhattan resident has been arrested and charged in connection with a brutal subway attack in which a homeless man was set on fire while asleep on a city train, Fox News reports. Police say Hiram Carrero was taken into custody and faces multiple counts, including attempted murder, three counts of assault, criminal mischief, arson, and reckless endangerment, according to statements from the New York Police Department.
The case began to unfold after investigators released surveillance footage that captured a suspect in the early-morning incident. Authorities say the attack occurred on a Number 3 train at Penn Station just after 3 a.m. when the suspect boarded the train, spotted the sleeping 56-year-old man, and set him ablaze before exiting the car. The victim sustained serious burns and was hospitalized; officials indicated that his condition was stable and that he is expected to survive. Reporters cited law enforcement sources describing the inferno as so intense that skin from the victim reportedly was found on a seat, underscoring the severity of the flames.
Footage released by the NYPD shows a man dressed in a gray jacket and a black hat approaching a doorway to the platform, an image prosecutors say helped identify a suspect. The broader context of the case includes earlier subway violence in the city; in December 2024, a separate unprovoked attack on a subway train in Brooklyn left a woman dead after being set on fire. Authorities arrested a 33-year-old migrant from Guatemala, Sebastian Zapeta, in that prior case hours after the incident.
In this latest incident, prosecutors described a deliberate act of violence carried out against a vulnerable person on a public transit car in the early morning hours, with investigators pursuing possible leads from the released video and other investigative steps. The victim’s burns and the circumstances of the attack have prompted renewed concern about subway safety and the ongoing effort to bring perpetrators to justice in a timely manner.