Parolee with 131 arrests arrested for setting homeless man on fire at Penn Station, police says

Colin Mixson, Rocco Parascandola and Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News on Mar 4, 2026

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NEW YORK — A parolee with a criminal record that includes 131 prior arrests in New York City was busted Wednesday for setting a homeless man on fire as he slept at Penn Station, according to police and prosecutors.

Damon Johnson, 47, is charged with attempted murder and assault for the attack on Monday that left a 37-year-old man with second-degree burns on his arm and back.

The victim was dozing near a W. 33rd St. entrance to Penn Station’s Amtrak rotunda near Eighth Ave. when three men approached him and one of them set fire to the man’s clothes around 8:30 p.m., cops said.

First responders quickly put out the flames and rushed the victim to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell’s burn unit.

After the attack, the three men fled deeper into the station. Officers with the Amtrak Police Department arrested Johnson on Wednesday.

Johnson, who is currently on parole for robbery until 2027, has an extensive criminal record that includes a whopping 131 arrests since he was first busted for a Bronx assault in 1995, cops said.

His most recent bust prior to Wednesday’s arrest was for an assault in the Bronx on Sept. 9, 2024, in which he punched and slapped a 56-year-old woman in the face during an argument on E. Tremont Ave. and Grand Concourse in Morris Heights.

The arson at Penn Station comes as Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Department of Homeless Services faces increased scrutiny after at least 19 New Yorkers died on the streets amid a recent cold snap, 15 of whom succumbed to hypothermia. The majority of those who died had some contact with Homeless Services over the course of their lives, according to the city.