Trapped in the rear seat was a 3-year-old, Zoey Pereira. Her father had fled the car as it burst into flames, authorities said. He also caught on fire and plunged into a nearby pond to save himself.
Police said that they were treating the child’s death Sunday night in Queens as a homicide and that the girl’s father, Martin Pereira, 39, had been taken into custody for questioning.
Investigators believe Pereira intentionally set the blaze that killed his daughter, a police official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an open investigation.
Pereira was discovered in a shallow pond a short distance from the car, police said. He was taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center’s burn unit, where he was recovering from extensive burns.
Investigators found two gas canisters — one in front of the car and one in the rear driver’s-side seat — and a 20-pound propane tank in the trunk. The tank had a hose attached to it that ran into the back seat, according to a city official close to the investigation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information.
While Pereira’s possible motives were still unclear, investigators said he and Zoey’s mother had been engaged but broke up in March. They were embroiled in a custody dispute and had been due in Family Court on Monday to discuss a child support arrangement.
Pereira, 39, a construction worker, had been distraught in recent weeks over the custody battle, one of his former co-workers, Angel Rivera, said. Pereira had told Rivera that the court was against him and had complained he was only going to see his daughter every two weeks.
“There was a lot of stress building up in him,” Rivera said. “It made him explode up like that.”
The episode is the latest in a string of cases in which children have been killed during custody battles between parents. The Center for Judicial Excellence, an organization that tracks the safety of children in family court disputes, estimates that 679 have been killed by a divorcing or separated parent throughout the country since 2008, or about 60 each year.
Nearly a year ago, a 47-year-old mother killed her 7-year-old son by pushing him off the balcony of the Gotham Hotel in Midtown Manhattan before jumping herself. She had also been in a custody dispute.
The city Administration for Children’s Services had a file of past complaints concerning Zoey, but the reports appeared to be related to her parents’ custody battle, said an official familiar with the situation, who was not authorized to release the information. It is not uncommon for a parent in a custody dispute to accuse the other of abuse, the official said.
Rivera, the former work colleague, said Pereira had expressed fears that his daughter was being physically abused and exposed to marijuana smoke. He had told Rivera that Zoey’s mother had punched him in the face during one fight.
“I said, ‘Why didn’t you go straight to the police?’” Rivera recalled. “‘Maybe if you had, you could get custody of your daughter easier.’”
Zoey’s mother, Cherone Coleman, declined a request for an interview.
Pereira was arrested once before, six years ago, on charges of aggravated harassment involving a young woman, but the outcome of the case was sealed, police said.
The episode that ended with Zoey’s death began shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday, when authorities responded to a 911 call for a car on fire near Baisley Pond Park in the Springfield Gardens neighborhood, police said.
A witness told investigators that Pereira, in flames, ran from the car and jumped into the pond in the park, the city official said. When the witness raced to give him a blanket, he said, “I have my child in the car.”
The witness also told the police he had seen Pereira driving erratically, the official said. The car had mounted the sidewalk and turned around before stopping at 154th Street and Baisley Boulevard.
The official said the two rear doors of the Audi sedan had been chained shut from the inside. The heat melted the door handles, allowing firefighters to pry them open despite the chain and free the toddler.
Firefighters pulled her out and began chest compressions, eventually taking her to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Photos of the car showed the extent of the blaze. The plastic and leather upholstery was charred to a crisp, and fabric hung like stalactites. A chain was seen on the floor in the rear of the vehicle.
At the scene Monday, a few relatives laid flowers on the side of the road. They declined to talk to a reporter.
On a Facebook page, Pereira posted several pictures of himself with the little girl. Just hours before the fire, he had updated the cover photo, showing the girl sitting in a room decorated with pink and purple balloons.
“I cannot believe my friend did that,” Rivera said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.