The crazed madman who hurled flaming liquid at unsuspecting passengers on straps also tried to set fire to a group of commuters at a Manhattan subway station earlier this year, police said Sunday.
Police said Niall Taylor, 49, who is in custody on suspicion of assault in the attack on Petrit Aliyazi, 23, at the Varick Street station in Manhattan on Saturday afternoon, was also charged in a similar incident that occurred at the West 28th Street subway station on February 5.
In the February incident, a man, now identified as Taylor, was seen on surveillance camera footage holding two cans of flammable liquid and throwing them at a group of people at the station.
No one was injured in the incident and the suspect fled the scene and remains at large.
On Saturday around 2:45 p.m., Alijaji and his fiancee were exiting the Platform 1 train at the intersection of West Houston Street and Varick Street to head to the Statue of Liberty when Taylor allegedly threw the flaming liquid at him.
The burn victim told The Washington Post on Saturday that she used her body to shield her boyfriend from the flames.
“I’m protecting my fiancé with my body,” he said.
Alijaji ripped his burning shirt apart as the attacker fled the scene.
“I touched myself to put out the fire,” Alijaji recalled, “so I was still burning while I was running.”
“The doctor said 30 percent of my body was burned, but I don’t think it’s 30 percent. Maybe more like 10 percent,” he said.
The victim was taken to NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Hospital for treatment of burns.
Police arrested Taylor about five blocks away at Canal and Renwick Streets, near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, but the key to his arrest was a cell phone he had stolen from a subway platform, which a resourceful officer was able to use to track him.
He was being questioned by NYPD detectives and is awaiting arraignment on Sunday, police said, adding that police had identified him as a suspect in the earlier incident.
He is currently charged with assault, arson, wanton endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon for the February incident.
Taylor was also arrested in 1997 on suspicion of dereliction of duty in an undercover operation and illegal possession of a weapon, according to officials.
Meanwhile, he is not the only suspected arsonist in the transport sector.
In March, police accused Israel Montero, a Bronx thug with a history of emotional instability, of setting a garbage bag on fire in a subway car at Manhattan’s 125th Street station.
Police said Montero, 49, had set his own shoes on fire during the May 3 fire.
