A 23-year-old food cart vendor has been indicted on attempted murder and assault charges for allegedly lighting a club promoter on fire in Times Square after a brief interaction, sending him running through the Crossroads of the World screaming for help, the Manhattan prosecutor’s office announced Monday.
According to the indictment, Ahmad Mossad was working as a food cart vendor in Times Square, on West 41st Street between Broadway and Seventh Avenue, in the overnight hours of March 16 when the club promoter approached his cart. The two had a brief reaction and the victim walked away, prosecutors said.
Mossad then allegedly poured gasoline from the food cart into a small water bottle and paced up and down the street waiting for an opportunity to attack the victim, prosecutors say.
Eventually, he walked by again.
The two men had another interaction, the nature of which wasn’t clear, and separated.
Mossad found the victim again and allegedly used a lighter to ignite the water bottle and set the 45-year-old promoter ablaze. The victim had flames consume his entire body, prosecutors say, and ran through Times Square looking for help. Two nearby NYPD officers doused the flames and took him to a hospital.
There, the man was placed in a medically induced coma for several weeks. He suffered second- and third-degree burns across nearly 20 percent of his body, according to prosecutors.
Mossad, meanwhile, fled to Egypt hours after the incident. He stayed there for more than eight months before returning to New York City on Nov. 25, which is when the NYPD arrested him.
“This alleged attempted murder is absolutely heinous,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “I know the victim has suffered excruciatingly painful injuries as a result of this incident, and I hope he can continue to improve and recover.”
Attorney information for Mossad wasn’t immediately available Monday.
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