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Martin Pereira, 39, was charged Friday, May 17, with murder, arson, and reckless endangerment, the NYPD said.
When officers found the burning 2008 Audi, they also found the small child inside. Officers removed the child from the vehicle and rushed her in a patrol vehicle to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center where she died, police said.
Pereira was found nearby after jumping in a pond with burns over most of his body, police said. He told people nearby that his daughter was in the vehicle.
Sources said the back doors of the vehicle were chained shut and that a gas canister was found in the street and another inside the car.
He was charged at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan where he is under police custody.
An arraignment date has not been set.
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