Cops Say Subway Fire Attacker Caught & Jailed
A 49-year-old homeless man who set a train passenger ablaze by tossing a flaming liquid on him in a downtown attack is the same man who earlier tried to set a person on fire in a Chelsea subway, cops said. He has been apprehended and is presently in jail awaiting trial.
The madman pyromaniac, Nile Taylor, who recently set a subway passenger on fire is in jail, and likely to remain there for some time.
The shocking incident occurred at approximately 2:45 p.m.on May 25, when 23-year-old Petrit Alijaj, his fiancé and some of Alijaj’s cousins were aboard a downtown No. 1 train pulling into the Houston Street station.
As the train squealed to a stop, Alijaj was unexpectedly attacked by a deranged stranger who lighted a cup of liquid on fire and threw it at him. As Alijah’s shirt burst into flames, he and his companions rushed onto the platform, where Alijah managed to remove the flaming garment, though not before suffering substantial burns to his chest, arms and neck.
Shocking photos in the New York Post show a still startled Alijaj on the street, shirtless and wearing jean shorts and sneakers, being hosed down by a fireman at the corner of Varick and King streets.
Later, Alijaj was taken to New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Hospital for treatment for his burns, which were substantially more serious than they at first seemed. A chilling photo shows Alijaj in his burn unit bed covered in gauze on his head, chest and arms. “I’m not OK, I’m not OK,” Alijaj told a reporter that Sunday.
Speaking from the hospital by telephone to ABC 7 Eyewitness News televsion, Alijaj said, ”I was on the train and a maniac like put fire on my body, and he left the train.”
”He had a cup with the fire and the train stopped at Houston Street. We thought when he got to the door, we thought he’s leaving, he’s getting off,” Alijaj said. “He waited for the door to open and then he put the fire on me.”
Alijaj’s alleged attacker meanwhile had also ran and escaped the station—but not before the surprisingly alert perp picked up a cell phone another passenger had dropped on the platform.
Thankfully, the woman who dropped her phone realized it, and immediately went to the police. Using her phone’s tracking function, cops found 49-year-old Nile Taylor at Canal and Renwick Street, near the Holland Tunnel.
Bizarre as Taylor’s attack had been, attentive cops realized this wasn’t the first time that cups of fire had been hurled on the subway. Back on Feb. 5, surveillance cameras at West 28th Street station on the southbound 1 line caught a man almost exactly resembling Taylor hurl two flaming cans of fire at an arriving train. No one was hit or hurt in this bizarre, previously unexplained incident.
Taylor— whose first name is misspelled Niel in the NYC Department of Correction Inmate Lookup Service— appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court on May 26 and again on May 31.
Taylor is charged with Attempted Assault, a first degree felony, for the fire attack; and petit Larceny, a misdemeanor, for stealing the women’s cell phone.
Said Assistant District Attorney Aryan Ahmadian to Judge Cori Weston at the first hearing, “This is a strong case. The defendant was arrested shortly after the incident on Saturday afternoon, and he was in possession of multiple lighters, a bottle containing rubbing alcohol.”
Dressed in a gray sweatshirt and white sneakers, Taylor pled not guilty but remained silent as Weston set his $250,001 bail, or $500,001 bond. Taylor is presently being held at West Facility in East Elmhurst, Queens.
Born in 1975, Taylor is a Black male, with brown eyes. He is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 120 pounds. Press reports describe him as a homeless man, living in a Harlem shelter, with a past prison record on gun and forgery charges.
Taylor’s attorney Gretchen Reeser of Legal Aid, had not returned a call from Straus News by presstime.