NEW YORK – A 46-year-old Guatemalan man was accused of setting fire to a Chinatown spa, dousing the lobby with flammable liquid and lighting it up when an employee walked into a back room of the company and He was trapped, federal prosecutors announced Friday.
Mario Lucas is accused of arson resulting in injury to another person, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of seven years in prison and a maximum sentence of 40 years. The incident took place on the afternoon of June 19 at the spa.
According to the indictment, Lucas entered the baths, whose location was not clear from the indictment, around 4:45 pm that day and started a conversation with the victim. About 10 minutes later, the victim left the lobby and went into a back room, while Lucas stayed in the front. Prosecutors say he opened his backpack and pulled out a white plastic bag that appeared to contain a plastic container filled with liquid, spilling the liquid all over the spa lobby.
Lucas would then take a lighter out of his pocket and set the liquid on fire. The room caught fire.
According to court documents, Lucas tried to open the front door at that moment, presumably to get out himself, but it didn’t open. Apparently the victim was still in the back room at the time.
Video from outside the spa shows smoke and fire inside as a crowd gathers in the street. A passerby used a bar stool to force the door open and Lucas ran out the door. Eldridge Street. The victim escaped a minute later.
It all happened within 15 minutes of her entering the building, prosecutors said.
Law enforcement officers followed Lucas’ movements through security camera footage from various locations in and around the venue. Prosecutors say he showed him taking off a hoodie and the shirt he was wearing underneath and throwing them on the street. He also dropped the backpack. Lucas appeared to be badly burned, they said, and it looked like he was trying to take off his clothes accordingly.
New York police officers intercepted him about two blocks away and loaded him into an ambulance, at which point he presented them with a Guatemalan identity card with the name “Mario Lucas,” according to the indictment.
It is not clear what motivated the attack.
“Intentionally starting a fire is a heinous crime, and doing it with the knowledge that a person is trapped inside is reprehensible,” FDNY Interim Commissioner Laura Kavanaugh said in a statement. “We are grateful to our firefighters and all law enforcement for quickly arresting this man and keeping him off the streets of our city.”
New York Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell also condemned the alleged act, calling it a “violent attack that endangered an entire community and all the first responders who rushed to help.”
“As allegedly, Mario Lucas committed a terrible arson in a Manhattan business with a victim trapped inside,” added Damian Williams, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. “Fortunately, the victim survived. As is clear from today’s prosecution, this Office is committed to holding accountable those who would commit violence in this city for their crimes.”
Information on Lucas’ legal representation was not readily available.
