A masked serial arsonist callously set a fire near a dozing subway passenger during a bizarre hours-long journey through Manhattan and Queens last week, police said.
According to police, the firebug first set fire to a parked NYPD squad car near City Hall in front of 254 Broadway on January 10 around 2:20 a.m.
About 15 minutes later, the arsonist — seen on surveillance footage wearing a black puffer jacket, a black hoodie and a rear face mask — set fire to another unoccupied vehicle near 14 Murray St., the NYPD said.
According to police, both vehicles were damaged by the flames.
In his third arson, the pyromaniac set fire to a paper cup and threw it in a trash can near the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall train station.
The fire starter then struck again — setting a pile of trash on fire next to a sleeping straphanger on a northbound J train at the Woodhaven Avenue station around 3:40 a.m., according to police and subway surveillance footage.
Creepy video released by the NYPD shows the arsonist lurking above the subway passenger as flames rise next to the unsuspecting man.
The firebug then casually walked off the train, the video shows.
Police said the spate of fires are being investigated by the NYPD’s Arson and Explosion Unit.
The incidents come weeks after Guatemalan migrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, allegedly set fire to sleeping homeless woman Debrina Kawam, 57, on a Brooklyn F train.
Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/or at X @NYPDTips.
