A 36-year-old woman was charged with murder over a 2021 fire in a Queens apartment — which took place the same day she shoved a man in an anti-Asian subway attack, authorities said this week.
Tandika Wright was busted Friday in connection to the Dec. 9, 2021 blaze at NYCHA’s QueensBridge North Houses that killed 49-year-old Lavina Nolley, police said.
Wright is accused of cutting Nolley several times before setting the second-floor apartment on fire sometime between 6:30 and 7:10 p.m., according to a criminal complaint against her.
Earlier that day, Wright had hurled an anti-Asian slur at a 26-year-old man and attacked him on a Manhattan train, police said.
She approached the victim on an F train near the 23rd Street station around 6:15 p.m. and snarled, “Hey, are you a c—k? You people brought the virus here. You people killed my people,” cops said.
Wright — who was out on parole at the time — shoved him twice and snapped, “Get the virus away from me,” before spitting on him, according to Manhattan prosecutors.
She was arrested in that case on Jan. 20, 2022 and charged with second-degree aggravated harassment, authorities said. She pleaded guilty to the charge in May 2022 and was sentenced to 60 days in jail, according to prosecutors.
On Jan. 28, Wright found herself in cuffs again when she allegedly punched her roommate and hit him with a table during a squabble inside their apartment on Mother Gaston Boulevard in Brownsville, Brooklyn, according to the criminal complaint.
Her charges included a top count of misdemeanor assault – which is not bail-eligible, and she was released on her own recognizance, Brooklyn prosecutors said.
In addition to the murder rap, she now also faces charges of manslaughter, assault, arson and weapons possession in Nolley’s killing in Queens.
Nolley’s body was discovered inside the flame-ravaged home on 12th Street near 41st Avenue in Dutch Kills, and her death was ruled a homicide about five months later. She died of smoke inhalation and multiple cuts to her body, cops said at the time.
Nolley lived about a half-mile from the building where the blaze took place. It’s not clear what she was doing in the apartment at the time. Her relationship to Wright is not known.
Wright was ordered held without bail at her arraignment, according to online court records.
She was previously arrested for second-degree murder in 2014, but convicted of attempted manslaughter and served prison time until 2019, when she was released on parole.
Her parole expired last month, state corrections records show.
Wright also has a prior arson conviction from 2011 – and served about two-and-a-half years in state prison for that offense, according to the records.
Her entire rap sheet includes about three dozen arrests.
