A career criminal suspected to be behind the subway blaze that killed an MTA worker Friday has been charged with setting another fire outside a Columbia University building in Harlem earlier this month, police said Tuesday.
Nathaniel Avinger, 48, was charged with setting the blaze in front of the Columbia University Computer Music Center on 125th Street on March 11, causing unspecified damage to property there, police said.
Avinger, who had 39 prior arrests when he was picked up by police early Monday, was questioned at the 28th Precinct stationhouse over the fire on a No. 2 train at the 110th Street-Central Park North station that killed train operator Garrett Coble Friday.
Avinger was released later Tuesday on a desk appearance ticket in connection to the Columbia fire, according to an NYPD spokesman. He is still a person of interest in the subway blaze, though an investigation is ongoing and no charges have been filed, the spokesman said.
Goble, a 36-year-old married father of two, was killed trying to get off the No. 2 train with about a dozen straphangers around 3:15 a.m. Friday.
He was found unconscious on the tracks and rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Police said 16 others were injured in the fire, which police believe was started inside a badly burned shopping cart found on the train.
Police said they identified Avinger as the suspect from surveillance video near the scene.
Police are investigating whether the fatal fire is tied to three smaller ones set on No. 2 platforms on 86th Street, 96th Street, and 116th Street at about the same time, sources said.
Avinger’s earlier arrests include six for assault and six for robbery dating to 1987.