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NEW YORK (TCD) — A landlord faces multiple charges, including attempted murder, for allegedly setting an apartment on fire because his tenants failed to pay rent.
According to the New York City Fire Department, Rafiqul Islam was upset that his second-floor tenants “stopped paying rent and refused to move out.” He allegedly set an interior staircase ablaze at 212 Forbell St. while two adults and six children were home. The occupants safely escaped.
Once they made it to the roof, the parents reportedly jumped, and neighbors and firefighters caught the children, WCBS-TV reports.
The fire department alleges that Islam previously threatened to cut off the family’s gas and electric. He also reportedly “threatened to burn the house down if he wasn’t paid his rent.”
Video footage from the day and time of the incident captured a masked and hooded man entering and exiting the apartment shortly before the first 911 call was made.
Marshals dedicated four weeks to an exhaustive video canvassing effort to identify the suspect. During that investigation, they observed an image of Islam with his hood and mask down, according to the fire department.
Islam was booked into the New York City Department of Corrections on Oct. 25 and faces eight counts of attempted murder, assault, and arson. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office will prosecute the case.
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