Police: woman 'torched' in New York apartment elevator
A man reeking of gasoline walked into a police station overnight and implicated himself in the death of a woman hosed down with an accelerant and set ablaze in the elevator of her apartment building, authorities said Sunday.
UPDATE: The Associated Press is reporting a man has been arrested for allegedly setting a woman on fire with a Molotov cocktail in her New York City apartment building.
According to the AP’s Christian Salazar:
Police say 47-year-old Jerome Isaac, of Brooklyn, was arrested Sunday on murder and arson charges in death of 73-year-old Deloris Gillespie.
Authorities say Isaac ambushed Gillespie in the elevator of her Brooklyn apartment building on Saturday afternoon.
Police say Isaac reeked of gasoline when he walked into a police station overnight and implicated himself in Gillespie’s death.
From an earlier report by WNBC New York:
A man reeking of gasoline walked into a police station overnight and implicated himself in the death of a woman hosed down with an accelerant and set ablaze in the elevator of her apartment building, authorities said Sunday.
The 47-year-old man, who hasn’t been charged, said he had started a fire, said New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne. The man’s identity hasn’t been released.
Deloris Gillespie, 73, was ambushed in the elevator of her Brooklyn apartment building on Saturday afternoon, doused with an accelerant and set afire with a Molotov cocktail, Browne said. The suspect had been waiting for her when the elevator doors opened to the fifth floor of her apartment building in Prospect Heights, police said.
“It was apparent he knew she was on the elevator,” he said Saturday.
The attack happened shortly after 4 p.m., lasted about a minute and was recorded by two video cameras, including one inside the small elevator.
Read more at NBCNewYork.com
