A disturbed homeless man charged with lighting a straphanger’s shirt on fire on a Manhattan subway train was being sought for a separate arson attack in the city’s subway system earlier this year, police said Sunday.
Nile Taylor, 49, was hit with a slew of charges for the most recent attack on Saturday, in which he lit a cup of flammable liquid and threw it at a 23-year-old man on a downtown 1 train as it pulled into the Houston St. station around 2:45 p.m., cops said.
The victim’s shirt caught fire and his upper torso was burned. Taylor ran out of the station, scooping up a woman’s phone that had fallen out of her hands and onto the platform as he took off, police said.
The victim was taken to NewYork Presbyterian/ Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he was in stable condition.
Taylor was quickly arrested nearby, at the corner of Canal St. and Renwood St., and charged with assault, arson, reckless endangerment, petit larceny, criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of stolen property.
It was at least the second time Taylor had tried to light someone on fire this year, police said.
On Feb. 5, the firebug tossed a lit container of flammable liquid at a group of people waiting for a 1 train at the 28th St. station in Chelsea, according to cops.
There were no injuries during the attack, they said.
After police connected him to the February incident, he was hit with additional charges, including arson and attempted assault.
Taylor’s arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court was pending Sunday afternoon.
He has just one previous arrest in the city, cops say, when he was nabbed for criminal possession of a weapon in 1997.
