Crime

Update: Man Smelling of Gasoline Arrested in Woman’s Elevator Burning Death

Update: Man Smelling of Gasoline Arrested in Womans Elevator Burning Death

This Dec. 17, 2011 surveillance photo provided by the New York Police Department shows a suspect wanted in connection with a homicide, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. A woman burned to death in the elevator of her Brooklyn apartment building Saturday afternoon after a man ambushed her, sprayed her with liquid and set her afire with a Molotov cocktail, police said. (AP Photo/New York Police Department)

NEW YORK (AP) — A man who reeked of gasoline when he entered a police station implicating himself in the death of a woman set afire in an elevator was charged Sunday with dousing her in a flammable liquid and tossing a Molotov cocktail on her.

Jerome Isaac, of Brooklyn, was arrested on murder and arson charges in the death of 73-year-old Deloris Gillespie, police said. The 47-year-old Isaac walked into a police precinct overnight and told authorities he had started a fire, New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.

Browne wouldn’t comment on a motive but had said before the arrest that the suspect knew Gillespie. It wasn’t immediately clear if Isaac had an attorney.

Gillespie 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.

Police released still images of the suspect Saturday night, showing him in a black jacket, wearing what appear to be surgical gloves and with a white dust mask perched atop his head like a pair of sunglasses. He is holding what appears to be a canister with a nozzle and spraying as he steps into the elevator.

Jaime Holguin, the manager of news development for The Associated Press and who lives on the same floor as Gillespie, said he and his girlfriend had taken the elevator on their way out of the building shortly before the attack. They didn’t see anyone on the floor with them but did notice an odd smell, as if someone was painting, he said.

Holguin said police told them later that the assailant was already in the building and perhaps had hidden on another floor when they left their apartment.

He remembered Gillespie as nice but sometimes a little off. “At least with me, some days she’d be very, very pleasant, and then the next time, she would almost ignore me,” he said.

Gillespie also went through a period this year where she would place duct tape over her apartment door whenever she left.

He said the man in the photos released by police looked like a man who had lived with Gillespie for about 6 months or so toward the end of 2010.

“It seemed like during the time he was here, he was kind of helping her out in her apartment,” Holguin said.

He said he had exchanged hellos with the man, and they talked occasionally about Holguin’s dog.

The man seemed to stop staying there around the beginning of 2011, but Holguin said he spotted him on the street near the building months after that.

“When we started to see him on the street, he looked a lot more disheveled,” Holguin said.

Holguin said that when he and his girlfriend saw the images of the suspect, “We were like, `Oh, my God!’”

In the video, the elevator doors opens to the floor where Gillespie’s apartment was located and the assailant steps in and sprays 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, Isaac 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.

Neighbors reported a fire in the building, unaware that the woman was burning to death in the elevator.

Residents were evacuated and kept away from the six-story building for hours Saturday night as police investigated.

On Sunday, Holguin said the fifth floor was a mess, with a melted elevator door and a layer of water on the floor.

Comments (59)

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  • grannyrecipe
    Posted on December 19, 2011 at 10:03am

    Mr’s Chuck Swindoll, Charles Stanley and Franklin Graham…this country needs your presence like Billy used to do. Please.

    Report Post » grannyrecipe  
    • PatriotNAmerica
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 10:23am

      Seriously it’s too late. Buy food and ammunition by the boxes!

      Report Post »  
    • TH30PH1LUS
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 11:50am

      @ grannyrecipe:

      while you are correct, this nation also needs swift justice from our courts, and a restoration of full freedom to keep & bear arms in the 50 States.

      Report Post » TH30PH1LUS  
    • pavepaws
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 2:54pm

      Neighbor Carmen Martinez knew the victim for thirty years, indicating they may have been neighbors for thirty years. Still, Martinez doesn’t speak English when interviewed?

      Report Post »  
  • loveoursoldiers
    Posted on December 19, 2011 at 8:14am

    savage

    Report Post » loveoursoldiers  
  • BillnGA
    Posted on December 19, 2011 at 1:46am

    We need same death execution in this country. Dip him in diesel fuel and torch his butt. Then, let him fill out the survey card to see if he likes same?

    Report Post »  
    • loveoursoldiers
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 8:06am

      Our AG will likely say..’she deserved it and/or she was a racist” and probably will not prosecute him. Just a wild guess re: Mr. I willplaytheracecardifyoutrytofireme.

      Report Post » loveoursoldiers  
    • demint.disciple
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 8:15am

      a white dust mask perched atop his head like a pair of sunglasses. That was no dust mask Madeleine, It was a doo rag..

      Report Post » demint.disciple  
    • georgiavietvet
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 5:42pm

      BILLNGA……………..my sentements exactly………………………..

      Report Post »  
  • stm62
    Posted on December 19, 2011 at 1:06am

    God bless the victim.

    Report Post »  
  • BlazingPatriot
    Posted on December 19, 2011 at 12:49am

    According to an AP story, the woman owed her assailant money.

    http://news.yahoo.com/nyc-police-man-says-set-woman-afire-over-225942852.html

    Report Post » BlazingPatriot  
  • jespasinthru
    Posted on December 19, 2011 at 12:42am

    My opinion is that the old lady snitched out some local dope house, and the drug cartel coerced some useless stooge into killing her without a gun. Now that he’s caught, I hope that he will punk up and give up the evil bastards who put him up to it. There are demons in human guise walking among us every day, all the time. People with clear spirits can see them for what they are, but they usually keep quiet about it.

    Report Post » jespasinthru  
  • The-Monk
    Posted on December 19, 2011 at 12:09am

    Sorry but, the photos are not of an elevator doorway but of an apartment doorway. Look at photo one and down at the guys right foot. The door is clearly at an angle. This is not an elevator doorway. It’s at an angle and therefore on an hinge. Elevator doors “slide” open and shut, they do not “swing” open and shut. BTW…. Kim Jong Il is DEAD!

    Report Post » The-Monk  
    • The-Monk
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 12:11am

      Also, the article didn’t mention that the guy was holding a cell phone and filming his deeds. Look at his hand in the photos… what do you see?

      Report Post » The-Monk  
    • The-Monk
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 12:19am

      Left hand that is… See the celll phone?

      Report Post » The-Monk  
    • Elena2010
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 12:53pm

      Monk — take another look at the door, use a paper to block out the side photos. The door does slide like a normal elevator. You are seeing the edge of the cropped photo as if it were in the photo to its left.

      No conspiracy here — just savagery.

      Report Post » Elena2010  
    • The-Monk
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 10:16pm

      @Elena2010
      It’s still a door that swings open and not a sliding door.

      Report Post » The-Monk  
  • ZeroOff4impact
    Posted on December 19, 2011 at 12:00am

    Burn him at the stake in the street..!

    Report Post » ZeroOff4impact  
  • jonnyfontain
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 11:32pm

    wow blaze you don’t like the truth sometimes do you? You think you should decide what the people hear even when its our opinion that we type on these posts? Stop being **** and have a backbone. The truth is that black Americans make up only 13% of the country and yet 60% of the prison/jail system……. hmmmmmm. This year alone here are just a few stories that were on the blaze. This story of course which is disgusting, earlier this year their were blacks who beat an elderly woman in her apartment entrance, a couple blacks beat up and stole a 73 year old mans car in a parking lot, and then their was the blacks attacking whites at the wisconsin fair. When are we going to wake up and realize we cant all just get along? Coincidence,,,,,,…… i think not. America pull your head out of your butt and buy a gun, you will need it soon.

    Report Post » jonnyfontain  
  • DisarmoniaMundi
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 11:17pm

    shouldn’t there be an express lane to the gallows for people like this?
    instead he’ll probably get 5 years. I despise liberal judges.
    Makes me want to support Gingrich and his proposed remedy for our judicial crisis.

    Report Post »  
  • tgarrett369
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 10:54pm

    im sorry to be so vulgar but im guessing he is a liberal.

    Report Post »  
  • Walkabout
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 10:49pm

    Issac is not insane.

    He could have killed her on the street. He waited until she was out of sight of other people. He thought he could get away with it & then figured he couldn’t so turned him self in. He is not crazy.

    Report Post »  
    • jespasinthru
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 12:53am

      He had no choice but to turn himself in. Once his face hit the Internet, there was a price on his head. Every police officer, bounty hunter and random crackhead would be gunning for his a**.

      Report Post » jespasinthru  
    • babylonvi
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 5:25am

      This is what you get in places where gun control is so tight……the poor killers have to resort to setting people on fire……and of course, because of that same gun control, the victims can’t have a gun to protect themselves with.

      Report Post » babylonvi  
  • Walkabout
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 10:47pm

    I think the tape was used by the 73 year old victim because Isaac had a key or she suspected that he had a key. she should have got a locksmith to change out the lock.

    If the front door is locked she should have asked building management to change that lock too.

    Report Post »  
  • Walkabout
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 10:45pm

    Holguin works for the AP. The AP is not releasing the race of the victim.

    If the murderer had been white & the victim black, we would already know the race of the victim. We know that hate crime charges would be filed even if it was a dispute over money & nothing more.

    Report Post »  
    • blazer809
      Posted on December 18, 2011 at 11:10pm

      very interesting indeed

      Report Post »  
    • jonnyfontain
      Posted on December 18, 2011 at 11:38pm

      very true, I googled her race and out of 15 stories not one mention of her race? Its because America is getting fed up with these blacks and their crimes. The last census said that African Americans make up only 13% of the nation, yet 60% of the prison systems.

      Report Post » jonnyfontain  
    • loveoursoldiers
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 8:09am

      exactly..they must have their marching orders from the WH not to report black on white crime because we already know it is a POLICY at the DO (in)J

      Report Post » loveoursoldiers  
  • karatedavid
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 7:58pm

    Pure Evil. Simple as bread and butter. Anyone else noticing these kinds of events getting more and more common? What a scary world we are becoming.

    Report Post » karatedavid  
    • loveoursoldiers
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 8:13am

      Gee.. perhaps the class warfare has given certain segments of our society the impetus to go out and do whatever they want.. plus I believe the word on the street may be that their guy in the WH will get them off
      ( through Holder and liberal judges of course)

      Report Post » loveoursoldiers  
  • Jenny Lind
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 7:23pm

    She was 73, no matter how angry he was with her, there is no excuse.

    Report Post »  
    • jespasinthru
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 2:19am

      He wasn’t angry with her. It was a clumsy hit. Pure and simple.

      Report Post » jespasinthru  
  • Dougral Supports Israel
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 6:51pm

    Its hard to imagine how anyone could be so cold, uncaring, and inhuman towards another person.

    Report Post »  
    • UrbanCombatSurvivor
      Posted on December 18, 2011 at 8:58pm

      Hard to imagine? You haven’t lived anywhere near a “bad neighborhood”, have you? Certain segments of the population behave this way as a matter of course.

      Political Correctness = Cultural Marxism. If you make them fear to speak the truth, you have already taken their freedom.

      Report Post »  
    • demint.disciple
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 8:28am

      @Dougral Supports Israel.. Happens everyday at abortion clinics where have you been ? Only difference is there is no fire, they use forceps to rip the baby out by the head..

      Report Post » demint.disciple  
  • Baikonur
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 5:47pm

    Horrifying inhuman evil. This is something from Criminal Minds or Law and Order. A violently insane man walked freely among people in a middle class neighbourhood and was able to do this. I bet she was not paranoid when she was duct taping her apartment door–he probably threatened her and it was her attempt at ensuring her safety.

    I have no idea what the solution is to prevent this type of crime. Please don’t say concealed weapons permits, as I doubt a 72 year old woman who was returning from the grocery story with both hands carrying grocery bags would have benefited from such a law.

    I think the solution is forcible medication of psychotic patients if they refuse to take their medication, and aggressive identification of insane people. Public health services exist to prevent the crazy from walking the streets killing citizens.

    Report Post » Baikonur  
    • UrbanCombatSurvivor
      Posted on December 18, 2011 at 9:02pm

      What in the WORLD makes you think she would have been the vitcim if people‘s 2nd Amendment rights weren’t routinely violated, SPECIFICALLY in minority areas. It seems the darker skinned a community is, the more likely the politicians are to stop them from being legally able to defend themselves from animals like this.

      If NYC didn’t rape the constitution, and the 2nd Amendment specifically, what makes you think this animal would still have been ALIVE to commit this crime? Do you believe this is his FIRST ever victim? Do you believe someone who could do THIS hasn’t attacked people in the past?

      Please, think for a moment before you make statements like this. YOUR solution is forcing the population to submit to some pseudo/quasi-scientiic babble and permanent brain chemistry alteration based on that babble, rather than allowing them to defend themselves???

      Report Post »  
    • deeberj
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 2:32pm

      So you want the gov’t to force head meds on “mentally ill” people. What about when being religious becomes a mental illness? Or when disagreeing with the gov’t is a mental illness?

      You don’t solve the problem of evil with a sweeping regulation that starts a slippery slope towards losing freedom.

      Report Post » deeberj  
  • blackstone22
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 5:30pm

    beyond horrifying

    Report Post »  
  • Darla_K
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 5:27pm

    This is a sad story and I hope this man gets what is coming to him. Now a days we never know when it is our time. Best thing to do is be aware of our surroundings and maybe pack a friend with you. :)

    Report Post » Darla_K  
  • whatthecrazy
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 5:16pm

    If people are put to death the way they kill thier victems maby they would reconsider how they kill,this was vile, vicious and pure EVIL and yes i am GOD fearing but hope he BURNS in hell…………..

    Report Post »  
    • UrbanCombatSurvivor
      Posted on December 18, 2011 at 9:06pm

      Your answer here offers way to much room from some producer or musician to glorify his death and make him some kind of hero.

      Hands bound behind his back, knees knocked out on pay-per-view. One round to the back of the head, then drag his worthless corpse to a trash truck and toss it in with the rest of the garbage. Glorify THAT at the end of a movie.

      Quick, humane, inexpensive, and society is a better place.

      Report Post »  
    • Totally Domestic
      Posted on December 18, 2011 at 11:47pm

      Yes, let him die the same way he killed his victim.
      That might make these monsters think twice.

      Report Post »  
    • demint.disciple
      Posted on December 19, 2011 at 8:33am

      Yes I guess it would have been more humane if he choked her to death.. What the hell are you on, man ?

      Report Post » demint.disciple  
  • Anti_Spock
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 5:00pm

    A good defense atty will get him off by pleading insanity.

    Report Post » Anti_Spock  
    • barber2
      Posted on December 18, 2011 at 8:26pm

      But it was obviously planned. Check out all of the equipment the dude needed to kill. I bet they’ll play the Race Card instead…

      Report Post »  
    • SurhanSurhan
      Posted on December 18, 2011 at 11:24pm

      @ BARBER2- Isn’t that funny, an ofay talking about the race card.

      Report Post »  
    • Totally Domestic
      Posted on December 18, 2011 at 11:50pm

      Jose Biaz comes to mind.
      Seems like his kind of guy

      Report Post »  
  • Daveed
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 4:53pm

    How horrible. Can’t say it was not premediated.Depraved.

    Report Post »  
  • kickagrandma
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 4:25pm

    But did he reek of death and evil????

    HOW DIFFICULT was it to identify the **********************???? HELLLLOOOOOO?????

    You had photos or is that too easy for you guys?

    Report Post »  
  • randy
    Posted on December 18, 2011 at 3:58pm

    Sick Ba$tard

    Report Post » randy  
    • Glenn in Virginia
      Posted on December 18, 2011 at 4:07pm

      But, dude, he was just getting some gasoline for his riding lawn mower there in Brooklyn!

      Report Post »  
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