“She was screaming at the top of her lungs,” said a resident of the Prospect Heights building who heard screaming and the sounds of a struggle from his apartment. When he rushed outside, he smelled smoke.
“It sounded like a person being attacked rather than someone stuck in an elevator,” said the witness, who identified himself only as David.
Police said the suspect was waiting on the fifth floor and ambushed his victim as the elevator doors opened. He sprayed the woman with a flammable liquid and then set her aflame and ran off, leaving her to die in agony, police said.
Police think they know who did it, the witness told The Post.
“The cop told me, ‘We know exactly who did it and we have him on video,’” he said.
The fire was raging when residents realized the danger.
"It was a completely glowing flame," said Mike, 25. "It's deeply unsettling to think that someone would put someone in an elevator, and set them on fire, in my building."
Another resident heard sounds of distress before the fire.
"I heard people screaming, I thought it might be kids because it was high pitched," said John, 29. "I looked out the door and saw smoke coming out of the elevator. It smelled like plastic or wire burning, like an electrical fire."
The fifth-floor fire at 203 Underhill Ave. sent residents scrambling — firefighters had to escort five residents from the upper floors of the building.
The unidentified man was waiting for 64-year-old Doris Gillespie, when the elevator doors opened to her floor of the Prospect Heights building. The man sprayed her with an accelerant and set her on fire, New York City police spokesman Paul Browne said.
"It was apparent he knew she was on the elevator," he said.
No arrests had been made as of early Sunday, and police were still searching for the suspect.
The brutal attack happened shortly after 4 p.m., lasted about a minute and was recorded by two video cameras, including one inside the small elevator.
Brown said the video showed the elevator doors opening to the fifth floor where Gillespie's apartment was located and the assailant stepping in and spraying her.
Gillespie, who had grocery bags in her arms, turned about 180 degrees and then crouched in an attempted to protect herself, he said. But the man sprayed her directly in the face and continued to spray her "sort of methodically" over her head and parts of her body as the bags draped off her arms. She turned around and retreated to the back of the elevator.
At some point, Browne said, the suspect then pulled out a barbeque-style lighter, used it to ignite a rag in a bottle and then waited for a few seconds before using the flames to set her afire, causing smoke to fill the elevator.
The man backed out as she fell to the floor of the elevator, Browne said, and seemed to pause before tossing the bottle inside the elevator and onto her.
Browne would not comment on the motive in the killing, but said the suspect knew his victim.
Investigators believe the suspect fled down the stairs of the building, he said.
Police released still images of the man Saturday night, showing him in a black jacket, wearing what appear to be surgical gloves and with a white dust mask perched atop his head like a pair of sunglasses. He is holding what appears to be a canister with a nozzle and spraying as he steps into the elevator.
Neighbors reported a fire in the building, unaware that the woman was burning to death in the elevator.
Residents were evacuated from the six-story building for hours Saturday night.
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