Suspect Questoned for Setting 73 Year old Woman on Fire in Brooklyn Elevator

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, Brooklyn (WABC) -- Detectives are questioning an individual in connection with the murder a woman set on fire inside of a Brooklyn elevator.

The man, smelling of gasoline, walked into a police station overnight and implicated himself in the death of the woman, police 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, but police said he knew the victim.

The incident happened at 203 Underhill Avenue in Prospect Heights Saturday afternoon. Police responded to a 911 call of a fire inside of an elevator at the location. That's when police discovered an elevator that was stopped on the fifth floor was on fire.

The fire department put out the fire and discovered the dead body of Deloris Gillespie, 64, inside the elevator.

She 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. The video showed the elevator doors opening to the floor where Gillespie's apartment was located and the assailant stepping in and spraying her, Browne said.

Gillespie, who had grocery bags in her arms, turned about 180 degrees and then crouched to protect herself, he said. But the man sprayed her directly in the face and continued to spray her "sort of methodically" over her head and parts of her body as the bags draped off her arms, Browne said. She turned and retreated to the back of the elevator.

Then, Browne said, the suspect pulled out a barbecue-style lighter, used it to ignite a rag in a bottle and then waited for a few seconds before using the flames to set her afire, causing smoke to fill the elevator. The man backed out as she fell to the floor of the elevator, Browne said, and seemed to pause before tossing the bottle inside the elevator and onto her.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Brooklyn
• woman set on fire
• arsonist
• burned alive
• New York
• 2011

[KillerBearsAirGuns]

@joakan3945 right......

[joakan3945]

@KillerBearsAirGuns I'm just saying

[KillerBearsAirGuns]

@joakan3945 why?......

[joakan3945]

Anyone to hack the police´s entire video of the murder?

[ilawcat]

This man is a psycho, who da hell would do that? she could've had a knife with her or something but anyways it wasnt the goddamned lady's fault ASSASIN

[arianaalli]

@kldirectv2

How could she have reached for her gun if she was on fire tho!!??

[kldirectv2]

Why didnt she have her Gun with her?

What? No guns allowed in NYC, because they might harm someone?

[SSBMstuff]

And I thought what Stewie did to Bryan over money matters was bad...

[Fjerid]

Why? WHY?!