Brooklyn Man Arrested for Setting Girlfriend on Fire at Crown Heights Housing Complex

Kenneth Rickenbacker, 44, was arrested and charged with attempted murder, arson, assault, and acting in a manner injurious to a child after allegedly setting his 38-year-old girlfriend on fire at the Kingsborough Houses in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, on October 24. According to prosecutors, Rickenbacker got into a verbal dispute with his girlfriend around 5 p.m. before allegedly dousing her with rubbing alcohol and igniting it. The couple's 11-year-old daughter witnessed the attack and told police that Rickenbacker had also threatened both of them with a knife beforehand, and warned her not to tell anyone or he would hurt her and her mother. First responders found smoke pouring from the apartment and could hear the victim screaming near a burned mattress. The victim sustained severe burns to her face, head, back, and hands and was placed in a medically induced coma in the burn unit at Weill Cornell Hospital in Manhattan. Rickenbacker was arrested after he walked into a Queens police precinct to file a report about the fire and was taken into custody. He appeared at his Brooklyn Criminal Court arraignment with his head and hands wrapped in bandages, having suffered burns himself. He was remanded in custody. Rickenbacker has a prior 2017 conviction for criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree.