The Guyanese man who was arrested in Queens Village, New York for allegedly setting fire to a house around 11 pm on Tuesday, killing 63-year-old Bibi Jazmin, was said to be her co-tenant and her niece’s boyfriend.
Sources close to the family told Stabroek News yesterday that the couple had not contributed to the rent for the first floor of the 88-20 219th Street, Queens Village, apartment for the past four months, and that the woman was having problems with them. They had only been living there for a few months.
Jazmin, known as Azmin Shaw, had asked them to leave on several occasions but they refused.
Firefighters managed to extinguish the blaze quickly and prevented it from engulfing the upper flat of the building.
The charred remains of the woman were found in the spot where she slept.
A firefighter was also injured after he ventured into the building in search of victims. His co-workers rescued him and rushed him to the emergency unit of a nearby hospital. At first, neighbours thought the firefighters had rescued the woman.
This newspaper learnt that the cops from the New York Police Department (NYPD) were able to get a breakthrough in the case after viewing surveillance footages from neighbours and seeing a man hurling an explosive devise into the building.
The suspect had removed his car from in front of the house and parked it close to McDonalds on the other block. During the fire, he returned and when questioned he told investigators he was out and that he did not know anything.
He was told not to leave the scene and was arrested after a police dog sniffed his car.
The neighbours said that the tenant from the basement managed to escape the blaze. He had reportedly smelt the smoke and when he noticed where it was coming from, he ran back and grabbed his car keys.
He drove the car out of the driveway to safety and returned.
They criticized his actions and said that the time he took to do all of that, he could have alerted them of the fire or do something to prevent it from spreading or even try to save the woman.
Another Guyanese woman, Sharon Sobha and her two children ages, 13 and 15, who occupied the upper flat were not at home at the time of the fire.
She told SN that she and her children had gone to an 8 pm movie when she received a call from a neighbour, who thought they were in the building, that the house was on fire.
Jazmin’s brother, Mohamed Shaw told Stabroek News (SN) that he believes that his sister was asleep when the fire started.
She had suffered a stroke and was apparently unable to escape the blaze. The woman who used a wheelchair is originally from Dundee, Mahaicony.
Reports are that she was frustrated with the situation and had told a close relative that she wanted to call the cops on the couple but the relative advised her against it, saying that hopefully “they would move soon and she would be ok.”
Sources told this newspaper too that the suspect’s girlfriend had “already moved out of the house and disappeared” while the man had reportedly “moved out his belongings.”
Neighbours told SN yesterday that they were saddened at the gruesome way in which the woman met her death and they were having a hard time getting over it.
They said she was very friendly and recalled that she would use a cane to go out and sit on her front lawn and would wave to everyone who passed by.
They said too that the children in the neighbourhood had a lot of respect for her because she “watched over them while they were playing nearby.”
They said too that they were not aware of the problem with her ‘co-tenants’ until after her demise.
According to them, the woman’s aide also “loved her and she used to bring food for her.”
Yesterday the NYPD returned to the scene and boarded up the windows of the building.
The NYPD boarded up the windows
