A masked serial arsonist callously set a blaze next to a dozing subway passenger during a bizarre hour-long spree across Manhattan and Queens last week, police said.
The firebug first lit a parked NYPD police car on fire near City Hall at around 2:20 a.m. in front of 254 Broadway on Jan. 10, according to cops.
About 15 minutes later, the arsonist — seen in surveillance footage wearing a black puffer jacket, black hood, and back face mask — ignited another empty vehicle ablaze near 14 Murray St., the NYPD said.
Both vehicles were left damaged from the flames, cops said.
In his third arson, the pyromaniac lit a paper cup on fire and chucked it into a garbage can near the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall train station.
The fire starter then struck again — torching a pile of garbage next to a sleeping straphanger on a northbound J train inside the Woodhaven Avenue station around 3:40 a.m., according to police and subway surveillance footage.
Eerie video released by the NYPD shows the arsonist lurking over 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 wave of fires is being investigated by the NYPD’s Arson and Explosion Unit.
The incidents come weeks after Guatemalan migrant Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, allegedly torched sleeping homeless woman Debrina Kawam, 57, to death on a Brooklyn F train.
Anyone with information regarding 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 on X @NYPDTips.
