18-Year-Old High School Senior Charged With Federal Arson After NYC Subway Passenger Was Set Ablaze

18-Year-Old Charged With Federal Arson After Subway Passenger Set On Fire

Federal prosecutors have charged 18-year-old high school senior Hiram Carrero with arson resulting in injury after authorities say he set a sleeping passenger on fire aboard a New York City subway early Monday.

Investigators allege Carrero lit a piece of paper and dropped it near a 56-year-old man aboard a northbound 3 train as it passed 34th Street–Penn Station, the Department of Justice said. Surveillance footage released by investigators shows the victim stumbling onto the platform at 42nd Street–Times Square with flames visible on his legs and torso.

Officers on the platform extinguished the blaze and the victim was hospitalized in critical condition. According to a criminal complaint, Carrero briefly rode the train, then fled and took a bus to Harlem; he was arrested there Thursday. Attorneys told the Associated Press that Carrero lives with his disabled mother and serves as her primary caregiver.

Federal Case, Detention Order

U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni ordered Carrero detained, citing the “heinousness of the crime,” after prosecutors successfully appealed a magistrate judge’s earlier decision to allow home confinement under his mother’s supervision. Carrero did not enter a plea at his Manhattan federal court arraignment; his mother attended but declined to comment to reporters.

“The New York City subway is the heart of our City... New Yorkers have the right to be safe and feel safe when they ride the subway,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton. NYPD Commissioner Jessica S. Tisch called the attack “among the most serious acts of violence a person can commit.”

Carrero’s lawyer, Jennifer Brown, acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations and emphasized his youth and lack of a prior criminal record. If convicted, Carrero faces a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years; a preliminary hearing is scheduled for January 4. The case is being prosecuted federally because it was investigated by a federal task force and there are no state charges pending.

This incident is the latest in a troubling series of attacks on public transit in recent years, including other deliberate burnings that targeted riders and, in some cases, transit workers in New York and Chicago.