Brooklyn man nabbed for kidnapping woman, fatally setting her on fire

A Brooklyn man was busted Tuesday for taking a woman hostage and burning her alive in a horrific November slaying, cops said.

Lashawn Duffie, 28, was charged with murder and kidnapping for the grisly killing of 40-year-old Surgerys Ramirez.

On Nov. 11, Duffie allegedly tied Ramirez to a chair and set her on fire after kidnapping her inside the vacant East New York apartment where she had been squatting, cops said. It was not immediately clear how long he held her hostage before burning her alive.

A woman was pronounced dead on scene inside Apt. 2C after a fire broke out at 124 Van Siclen Avenue in Brooklyn on Friday November 11, 2022. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Duffie had been a person of interest throughout the investigation, and made a full confession before he was taken into custody Tuesday, a source said.

He and the victim were believed to have had a relationship, though the details were not known.

Firefighters responding to the blaze at the apartment on Van Siclen Ave. near Fulton St. found Ramirez dead at the scene.

Over a month later, the city Medical Examiner determined Ramirez died of severe burns and “homicidal violence.” The FDNY also determined that an accelerant was used to ignite the flames.

“She lived here maybe three months,” a tenant said of Ramirez at the time. “She hasn’t been here that long, she just came. I never talked to her. She used to sing all the time. She would be walking and singing.”