NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A Bronx man has been arrested charged with murder for allegedly setting a fire inside a Manhattan subway station that killed an MTA train operator, the NYPD said Friday.
Nathaniel Avinger, 50, of Concourse Village, was arrested and charged with murder in connection with 2 train operator Garrett Goble’s death on Friday, the department said.
Avinger has been considered a “person of interest” in connection with the case for months, police said.
Emergency personnel responding to a fire inside the Central Park North — 110th Street subway station in Harlem around 3:15 a.m. on March 27 found Goble, 36, of Brooklyn, lying on the tracks, the NYPD said.
Goble was taken to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said. The blaze also injured 16 people, including firefighters who responded to the station.
Police sources told the Daily News the fire started inside a shopping cart on the tracks inside the station.
Goble was helping passengers evacuate the train when he “got lost in the smoke-filled tunnel and collapsed, possibly from a heart attack,” the outlet reported.
Police took Avinger into custody earlier this week for allegedly groping a female train conductor in Brooklyn, according to the outlet. Avinger reportedly "made statements that linked him to the deadly March arson" while police were questioning him.
In 2013, he was convicted and sentenced to prison for robbery, the outlet noted. His attorney information wasn't immediately available Friday.
In a statement provided to the Daily News on Friday, NYC Transit Interim President Sarah Feinberg said the agency “has grieved and mourned Garrett Goble every single day for the last 9 months."
"Nothing will bring Garrett back to NYCT or to his sweet family,” she said.
“There should be no tolerance for any form of violence in our transit system," she added. "Fires, sexual assaults, assaults on our workers - these are crimes committed against the very best of New York — the brave men and women who show up and serve this city each day and keep us all moving forward."