It is claimed Hiram Carrero ignited a piece of paper and dropped it near the passenger on the train at the 34th Street—Penn Station stop in Manhattan, New York City
This is the sickening moment a college student allegedly set a man on fire as he slept on a train.
Hiram Carrero, 18, was arrested on Thursday after it is said he left the passenger severely burned on the service through New York City. A judge remanded Carrero into custody yesterday, emphasising the “heinousness of the crime”. District Judge Valerie E Caproni added: “It’s hard for me to understand why an 18-year-old young man who’s in high school is out at 3 o’clock in the morning setting people on fire.”
The teen ignited a piece of paper and dropped it near the 56-year-old passenger at around 3am on Monday on a northbound train at the 34th Street—Penn Station stop near Madison Square Garden and Macy’s flagship store in midtown Manhattan. He will appear in court again in January to enter a plea to the arson charge.
Photographs have emerged appearing to show Carrero set the man on fire. These were taken minutes before he managed to stumble to the platform at the next station, 42nd Street—Times Square, with his legs and torso ablaze. Police officers quickly extinguished the flames and the passenger was taken to a hospital, where he was listed in critical condition.
Cameron Molis, prosecuting, said: “The victim very well could have died in this case.” The court heard Carrero, who is still at college, who fled the scene of the alleged crime and took a bus home while the passenger lay stricken.
The teenager’s lawyer said he lives with his disabled mother and acts as her primary caregiver, bringing her to medical appointments. She attended his arraignment but declined to speak to reporters.
Carrero faces a minimum of seven years in prison if convicted. A preliminary hearing is set for January 4, though it will be cancelled if prosecutors take the case to a grand jury and secure an indictment beforehand.
His attorney, Jennifer Brown, acknowledged that “there is no disagreement that the allegations are extremely serious.” Still, she emphasised that Carrero is “a very young man with no criminal record and a mother willing to take him in.”
Magistrate Judge Lehrburger had approved Carrero’s release to home confinement with electronic monitoring, along with requirements for a mental health evaluation and drug testing. Caproni reversed that decision, though, during an after-hours hearing on Friday as Carrero’s team appealed.
In urging the judge to maintain the release order, Brown pointed to news reports suggesting investigators were exploring whether the victim may have set himself on fire.
The case comes as prosecutors elsewhere confront similar incidents. Last month, federal authorities in Chicago charged a man with dousing a woman in gasoline, chasing her through a train car, and setting her on fire. And in December 2024, a woman sleeping on a stopped subway train in Brooklyn was killed after a stranger ignited her clothing.
