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On Sunday, the New York Police Department announced that a 15-year-old had been arrested over starting a fatal fire in the Bronx. The tragic incident took place on January 29, 2023, at around 2 pm local time.
In surveillance footage from the scene of the fire, firetrucks are seen rushing to the spot as the apartment building erupts in flames. The New York Post reported that one man, identified as Abdoukarim Sakolly, died in the incident.
The 15-year-old girl linked to the Bronx incident allegedly started the fire with lighter fluid. New York authorities stated that the suspect, whose name has been withheld as she is a minor, will be charged with murder, assault, arson, reckless endangerment, and criminal mischief. The suspect is currently being held without bail.
Bronx fire suspect was reportedly a troubled, runaway teen
As per Fox, authorities determined that the 15-year-old suspect in the Bronx arson reportedly started the fire after she had a dispute with one of the residents in the building. The victim of the incident, however, was unknown to the suspect.
Authorities later tracked the suspect to midtown New York, where she was arrested on Saturday, February 3. She was described as a troubled, runaway teen from Canandaigua. State prosecutors said that there was already a warrant out for her arrest after she ran away from a group home facility in New York's Ontario County.
The teen was linked to the fatal arson through surveillance footage obtained by the NYPD. The 15-year-old was allegedly seen entering the Bronx apartment with a bottle of what appeared to be lighter fluid. She reportedly left the building without the bottle at approximately 1.55 pm, around the time the fire began.
"Worst thing that ever happened to me in my life" - Bronx fire victims shed light on incident
In an interview with New York Daily News reporters, many of the arson victims and their family members spoke out about the attack. While the nature of the dispute between the 15-year-old and her acquaintances in the apartment building remains unknown, authorities confirmed that most of the people that were injured or killed in the burning house had no connection to the suspect.
An anonymous woman, whose husband was among two men injured in the fire, said that he is still recovering.
The woman said:
“I pick up the medicine for him. He’s not OK. His face and the hands (are burned)."
Another resident, 37-year-old Ibrahaima Magassouba, described what it was like to see the flames and mentioned:
“I come back, everything was fine. I went inside. Like two, three minutes, then I heard people running. When I open my door, there’s smoke coming from all over the place. I had to run outside. And then I seen the fire.
They continued:
“It was like the worst thing that ever happened to me in my life. My neighbors, they had it worse. We had to help them break the windows. Nobody come out the door. Everybody had to come from the window.”
Pix11 reported that the deceased in the incident, Abdoukarim Sakolly, was an African immigrant who had recently moved to New York from Ohio.
