Police used body-camera footage from an October traffic stop to track down the teen suspected of setting a homeless man on fire on a Manhattan subway train, identifying him in part based on his “distinctive mustache,” prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Hiram Carrero, 18, who was caught on MTA surveillance cameras setting fire to the sleeping victim on a northbound No. 2 train at 34th St.-Penn Station on Monday, was cited by the NYPD for bicycling through a red light on Oct. 21, court documents show.
Investigators compared body-cam footage recorded during the traffic stop to the footage of Monday’s arson, in which Carrero can be seen wearing the same hat, backpack and gray sweatshirt, in addition to sporting the distinctive stache in both recordings, prosecutors say.
Carrero was arrested in Manhattan Thursday. He was ordered held without bail Friday after prosecutors appealed a ruling by Magistrate Judge Robert Lehrburger, who at Carrero’s arraignment hours earlier, had ordered the defendant released — reportedly due to mental health issues — and given him two weeks to post $100,000 bond, a law enforcement official confirmed to the Daily News. In response to the appeal, Manhattan Federal District Judge Valerie Caproni promptly ordered Carrero remanded to custody.
The teen is charged with arson resulting in the injury of another person, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 40 years, prosecutors said.
“As alleged, Hiram Carrero committed a horrific arson, starting a fire inside of a New York City subway car where a victim was sleeping,” U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said. “As a result of that arson, the victim has suffered severe injuries.”
The 56-year-old victim was dozing aboard a northbound No. 2 train when, as the doors opened at the 34th St.-Penn Station subway stop in Midtown around 3 a.m., Carrero entered his car, cops said.
Footage recorded inside the train shows the teen lighting a piece of paper on fire, which he placed beside the sleeping victim, and then exiting the train before it left the station, prosecutors said.
Video recorded inside the train shows the fire engulfing the victim’s legs as the train approached the 42nd St.-Times Square stop, prosecutors said.
An off-duty train conductor alerted police after spotting smoke billowing off the seated victim when the doors opened at the stop about five minutes after the suspect started the fire.
Police officers at the station poured water on the victim to put out the flames, sources said.
Medics rushed the man to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center for treatment of severe leg burns, cops said.
At Carrero’s Harlem home Friday evening, his mother, Wanda Carrero, 63, told the Daily News she had just returned from hearing her son’s case in court.
“I just got out of court,” she said, breathing heavily. “I’m having an asthma attack.”
Asked by The News what happened to her son, she said, “I don’t understand. My son is a kind and decent kid.”
Cutting short any further questions, she then slammed the apartment door.
