An elderly man is in critical condition after he caught fire inside Penn Station in Manhattan on Friday, authorities said.
Emergency personnel responded to the subway station after MTA police received a call about a man on fire at around 8 p.m. ET.
An NYPD spokesperson said: “MTA Police officers responded to the scene and found a 67-year-old man with burns to his legs and upper body.”
The man was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center for treatment and remains in critical condition.
The suspect accused of burning a woman to death on a New York City subway was a former deported illegal immigrant
A New York State Police officer stands guard outside the caution-taped entrance of Penn Station after a homeless man caught fire at the station on December 27, 2024. (Peter Gerber)
No arrests have been made. The NYPD and MTA Police are conducting a joint investigation.
The incident comes days after an illegal immigrant was arrested in connection with the gruesome death of a woman who was set on fire and burned alive on a Brooklyn subway train.
MTA police walk through Penn Station after a homeless man caught fire there on December 27, 2024. (Peter Gerber)
Sebastín Zabetta, 33, was charged with first- and second-degree murder, as well as first-degree arson.
Surveillance video showed the suspect calmly approaching the woman, who was sitting motionless and possibly asleep, while she was on a stationary F train at the Coney Island-Stilwell Avenue subway station and then setting her on fire.
NYPD arrests immigrant who allegedly set a woman on fire on a subway train, watching her burn to death
Caution tape blocks a corridor at Penn Station after a homeless man caught fire there on December 27, 2024. (Peter Gerber)
The victim has not been identified.
New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said her clothes were “entirely swallowed up within seconds,” and described the case as “one of the most horrific crimes that a person can commit against another human being.”
The suspect then sat on a nearby bench outside the train car and watched as officers and a transport worker extinguished the flames. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
He was arrested hours later while riding the same subway line. The person of interest was found with a lighter in his pocket, Tesch added.
A Virginia man is charged with planning a “mass casualty” attack on the Israeli consulate in New York City
NYPD officers stand guard outside the entrance to Penn Station cordoned off with caution tape after a homeless man caught fire at the station on December 27, 2024. (Peter Gerber)
Zabetta was previously arrested by the Border Patrol on June 1, 2018, after he was arrested They illegally crossed into Sonoita, Arizona, He was deported by the Trump administration just days later on June 7, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Mary Ferguson told Fox News.
Ferguson added that Zabieta then returned to the United States illegally “at an unknown date and location.”
She added that after Zabeta is charged and details of his whereabouts are released, Enforcement and Removal Operations will “deposit the immigration detainer to the NYPD location where he is being held.”
Fox News’ Pilar Arias, Bill Melogen, Greg Weiner, Seth Andrews and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
