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Dramatic video shows NYPD officers swarming a packed Manhattan subway train to haul away the Guatemalan migrant accused of lighting on fire a sleeping subway rider and watching her burn to death.
Officers were waiting on the platform at the 34th Street–Herald Square station searching for the suspect when they pounced on him inside the jam-packed Subway car, a video shared on Instagram shows.
Two officers are seen pushing past commuters, charging at the alleged killer — who sat with his head down, possibly even sleeping.
One of the cops then wraps his arm around the suspect, forcing him to the ground as more officers rush on to assist.
About five officers are seen holding down the Guatemalan native and placing him in handcuffs while his face is pressed against the plastic subway seat.
Worried and confused straphangers look on and back away as cops yell for them to “step out” of the train.
Riders in the already packed subway car are seen struggling to get clear of the mayhem before the video ends.
Three high schoolers had called police to say they saw the man at the Jay and York Street station on the F line, according to Tisch and the NYPD’s Chief of Transit, Joseph Gulotta.
Cops were called ahead, halted the train at Herald Square and went from car to car until they found the suspect and arrested him.
“Our officers in District Two stopped that train in Herald Square, and (were) able to keep the doors closed, walk the train and place this very dangerous individual in custody,” Gulotta said.
The suspect had a lighter in his pocket when he was picked up, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said.
The 33-year-old suspect — whose name has yet to be released pending charges — is accused of setting a sleeping subway rider on fire on an idling F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn on Sunday at around 7:30 a.m.
“As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim, who was in a seated position at the end of a subway car … and used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds,” Tisch said.
Horrifying video obtained by The Post showed the suspect calmly looking on as flames consumed the still-unidentified woman, who stood inside the open subway car door.
Patrolling cops eventually reached the smoldering victim and extinguished the blaze. The victim died at the scene.
“Unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect had stayed on the scene and was seated on a bench on the platform just outside the train car,” Tisch said.
“The body-worn cameras on the responding officers produced a very clear, detailed look at the killer.”
Around 1 p.m., authorities carried a body bag containing the woman’s corpse out of the train and placed it on a gurney over to a medical examiner van.
The woman has not yet been identified.
Officials said the alleged killer came to the US in 2018 from Guatemala. Border patrol agents detained him in Arizona in June of that year, sources said.
His legal status wasn’t immediately clear.
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