Homeless Man Burned in NYC’s Penn Station, Claims Someone Set Him on Fire While He Slept

A homeless man is recovering from burns on his legs and upper body, alleging he was set on fire by an unknown perpetrator while he slept in New York City’s Penn Station, police and law enforcement sources said.

UPDATE Sunday, December 29: The homeless man who suffered burns to his legs and upper body in a Penn Station commuter tunnel near New Jersey Transit Tracks 11 and 12 is now believed to have set himself on fire, law enforcement sources told the New York Post on Saturday. The man, who remains unidentified, was taken to New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center in “critical condition,” the outlet reported.

While he claimed that someone set him ablaze while he was sleeping in the train station, police sources said they have found no evidence to indicate that someone else was involved. The disturbance has still shaken commuters, especially after last week’s incident where a woman sleeping on the subway in Brooklyn was allegedly burned to death by an illegal migrant, and a separate Christmas Eve incident in which two people were randomly stabbed in Grand Central Station.

“That’s crazy,” Mike Jones, a school safety officer from the Bronx who commutes to Penn Station, told the Post. “I come through this area sometimes. It’s dangerous. It’s scary. Two people on fire, two different stations, and two stabbed at Grand Central Station — that’s dreadful.” Both Grand Central Station victims lived, and 28-year-old Brooklyn native Jason Sargeant was arrested on charges of assault, reckless endangerment, menacing, criminal possession of a weapon, harassment, and disorderly conduct.

The original story continues below.

First responders arrived at the major train station around 7:50 p.m. Friday after police received a call saying that a person was on fire in a commuter passageway, the New York Post reported.

The victim, determined by authorities to be a 67-year-old homeless man, had “burns to both legs and his upper body” but was transported to the hospital in “stable condition,” according to the outlet.

Law enforcement sources told the Post that the man said he believes somebody set him on fire while he was asleep, but police are unsure if criminality was a factor in the blaze.

There are no surveillance cameras in the area where the victim was found, though an investigation is taking place around New Jersey Transit tracks 1-12.

“This is exactly the way I come to the office every day,” one commuter told the Post, noting that it is common to see homeless individuals sleeping in the poorly lit passageways in Penn Station.

The incident occurred just days after a woman sleeping on the subway in Brooklyn died after being lit ablaze by an illegal Guatemalan migrant, Breitbart News reported.

Journalist Nick Sortor decried the latest New York transit fire attack in an X post:

“ANOTHER person set on fire at a train station in just a week in NYC?? This MUST end,” Sortor wrote. “Penn Station is known to be one of the MAJOR hubs for importing illegal migrants into NYC, and is one of the busiest train stations in the region.”