Overview
- U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni ordered 18-year-old Hiram Carrero detained after prosecutors appealed a magistrate’s earlier release to home confinement.
- Federal prosecutors charged Carrero with arson resulting in injury, alleging he lit a piece of paper and placed it near a sleeping 56-year-old on a northbound 3 train at 34th Street–Penn Station.
- Surveillance footage shows the victim’s legs engulfed as the train reached Times Square, where officers extinguished the flames before he was hospitalized with severe burn injuries.
- Investigators say they identified Carrero by matching MTA video to NYPD body-camera footage from an October bicycle stop, noting a distinctive mustache, hat, hoodie and backpack.
- The ATF-led New York Arson and Explosives Task Force brought the case to the Southern District of New York; a preliminary hearing is set for Jan. 4, and the charge carries up to 40 years if convicted.