Cops seek teens in homeless man torching
http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-home1006,0,1369131.story?coll=amny_home_class
By Maria Alvarez 6:24 PM EDT, October 5, 2007 A slew of detectives swept through East Harlem's 103th street yesterday asking residents to help catch three teens suspected of setting Felix Najera, a homeless man, on fire with a cigarette lighter.
Najera, a 48-year-old Mexican immigrant, suffered burns over 40 percent of his body including his face, chest, arms and abdomen, said police.
At about midnight Friday, Najera was sleeping on a cardboard box in front of a church when one teen lit his pants on fire with a lighter forcing Najera to jump up "causing him to be engulfed in flames,'' said NYPD spokesperson Sgt. Carlos Nieves. Najera is in critical condition at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, said police. Friends and neighbors said they last saw Najera in front of the Iglesia Cristianna Betania where he had been playing dominos with friends.
"His two friends left him and he stayed by himself,'' said the church's pastor Rev. Ariel Soto, who in the last several years tried to get Najera into a shelter and into an alcohol treatment program. "He always told me he didn't want to go."
"Poor man he was just a drunk who did not do anyone any harm,'' said Soto. "He was always respectful."
Soto said he arrived at the church to wash down the sidewalk where Najera was burned. "The whole area smelled like gasoline,'' he said as he swept bits of burnt clothing into the gutter with his feet.
"Whoever did this has no love for humanity,'' said Soto. "The person who did this is psychologically disturbed. There is absolutely no meaning to this." (more at link)
WHERE DOES ANYONE, let alone teenagers, GET AN IDEA LIKE THIS TO PURPOSELY SET SOMEONE ON FIRE?
http://www.amny.com/news/local/am-home1006,0,1369131.story?coll=amny_home_class
By Maria Alvarez 6:24 PM EDT, October 5, 2007 A slew of detectives swept through East Harlem's 103th street yesterday asking residents to help catch three teens suspected of setting Felix Najera, a homeless man, on fire with a cigarette lighter.
Najera, a 48-year-old Mexican immigrant, suffered burns over 40 percent of his body including his face, chest, arms and abdomen, said police.
At about midnight Friday, Najera was sleeping on a cardboard box in front of a church when one teen lit his pants on fire with a lighter forcing Najera to jump up "causing him to be engulfed in flames,'' said NYPD spokesperson Sgt. Carlos Nieves. Najera is in critical condition at Mt. Sinai Medical Center, said police. Friends and neighbors said they last saw Najera in front of the Iglesia Cristianna Betania where he had been playing dominos with friends.
"His two friends left him and he stayed by himself,'' said the church's pastor Rev. Ariel Soto, who in the last several years tried to get Najera into a shelter and into an alcohol treatment program. "He always told me he didn't want to go."
"Poor man he was just a drunk who did not do anyone any harm,'' said Soto. "He was always respectful."
Soto said he arrived at the church to wash down the sidewalk where Najera was burned. "The whole area smelled like gasoline,'' he said as he swept bits of burnt clothing into the gutter with his feet.
"Whoever did this has no love for humanity,'' said Soto. "The person who did this is psychologically disturbed. There is absolutely no meaning to this." (more at link)
WHERE DOES ANYONE, let alone teenagers, GET AN IDEA LIKE THIS TO PURPOSELY SET SOMEONE ON FIRE?