A woman was doused with a flammable liquid and burned alive in a Brooklyn elevator this afternoon — and police are searching for her killer, law enforcement sources said.
“She was screaming at the top of her lungs,” said a resident of the Prospect Heights building who heard screaming and the sounds of a struggle from his apartment. When he rushed outside, he smelled smoke.
“It sounded like a person being attacked rather than someone stuck in an elevator,” said the witness, who identified himself only as David.
Cops view evidence as they investigate the scene. A witness says cops told him the killer was caught on video. (Paul Martinka/ photographer)
Firefighters at the scene of the gruesome murder in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, where a woman was apparently set on fire inside an elevator. (Paul Martinka/ photographer)
Police said the suspect was waiting on the fifth floor and ambushed his victim as the elevator doors opened. He sprayed the woman with a flammable liquid and then set her aflame and ran off, leaving her to die in agony, police said.
Police think they know who did it, the witness told The Post.
“The cop told me, ‘We know exactly who did it and we have him on video,’” he said.
The fire was raging when residents realized the danger.
“It was a completely glowing flame,” said Mike, 25. “It’s deeply unsettling to think that someone would put someone in an elevator, and set them on fire, in my building.”
Another resident heard sounds of distress before the fire.
“I heard people screaming, I thought it might be kids because it was high pitched,” said John, 29. “I looked out the door and saw smoke coming out of the elevator. It smelled like plastic or wire burning, like an electrical fire.”
The fifth-floor fire at 203 Underhill Ave. sent residents scrambling — firefighters had to escort five residents from the upper floors of the building.
“We were on the sixth floor, the glass was popping,” Mike Connor said. “We couldn’t see anything. It was all dark.”
It’s not the first time there’s been a fire in the elevator of the Underhill Avenue building.
“A couple of years ago there was a fire. It was a gang retaliation,” Delano Brown, 52, said. “Someone lit the elevator shaft on fire.”
Edgar Belson, 37, said the fire caused chaos.
“I ran outside, people were yelling,” he said.
Five other people were hurt but not seriously injured in the blaze.