…sets car on fire with 3-year-old inside

A GUYANESE man will be charged with murder in New York after he allegedly left his three-year-old daughter to burn, in a car, near a park in Queens. Reports allege that the child was strapped to her baby seat inside a chained-shut, gasoline-covered car that was set ablaze on Sunday.

The full horror of Zoey Pereira’s final moments emerged on Monday, as cops ruled her death a homicide. Sources say the 39-year-old, Martin Pereira, is responsible for the toddler’s death. “He killed a baby. He burned her alive. He did that to her. That’s not even human, that’s an animal. That’s a coward,” Zoey’s aunt told The Post in New York.

The dad was locked in a bitter custody dispute with the girl’s mother, and had been threatening to hurt their angelic toddler right before he allegedly left her to burn inside the car that had been rigged-up as a fiery prison, sources said.

Zoey never had a chance. The little girl was strapped into an infant seat in the back of an Audi A6, and its rear doors were chained shut from the inside in an apparent bid to frustrate attempts to rescue her. The vehicle had been doused in gasoline, and a propane tank in the trunk was set-up to feed into the back seat via a tube, sources said. A second tank was found outside the car, sources added.

A good-Samaritan saw a flaming Martin flee the car when he pulled over at 155th Street and Baisley Boulevard, and used a blanket to help put out his burning clothes. Martin told him his baby was in the car but while the Samaritan called 911, the father fled, according to police sources.

The dad doused himself in nearby Baisley Pond Park — then tried to hide from cops as rescue workers fought to wrest his daughter from the wreckage. “The dad was down by the water,” the source said. “The only reason they found him was that a piece of his clothing was on fire.”

The flaming scrap drew investigators’ eyes toward the water, where they found Martin “stripped down to his underwear,” the source added. Police handcuffed him and connected him to an oxygen tank while FDNY members struggled to perform CPR on Zoey, the source said.

First responders were able to extricate the girl – but only after the door handles that the chains were affixed to had melted – sources said. Zoey was rushed to Jamaica Hospital Medical Centre but could not be saved.

Martin Pereira, 39, suffered second and third-degree burns, and was being treated at Weill Cornell Medical Centre in Manhattan. He was in police custody at the hospital, but had not been charged as of Monday evening.

“He’s probably going to be charged with murder,” a police source told The Post.
Another of Zoey’s aunts said Monday: “I hope he dies.” “I’m just being honest. I hope he dies,” she said, as she stood outside her sister, Cherone Coleman’s Queens home on Monday.

Cherone Coleman and Pereira have been fighting over custody of their daughter, Zoey, according to relatives and police sources. They were engaged, but Coleman, 36, broke it off about a month ago, police sources said. “He was acting kind of crazy lately since the breakup,” Cherone’s sister added. “And with his behavior, it did cross my mind that he may do something to harm my sister. But it did not cross my mind that he would do anything to harm a child, my niece, his daughter.”

Martin had weekend visitation rights and picked up the child from Coleman on Saturday, police sources said. He later called her to discuss their relationship, but she told him to get lost. On Sunday, Martin phoned one of Coleman’s cousins in California and threatened to hurt the baby, prompting the cousin to call Coleman at around 20:00hrs to warn her, sources said. The frantic mom called police in Nassau County — where Martin lives — then tried the NYPD, sources said. Coleman was at the 113th Precinct Station when calls about the fire came in.

Martin has a history of violence, according to family and police. He was arrested once for criminal contempt and twice for aggravated harassment against a different woman in 2013, sources said. Both parents had reported each other to various children’s protective agencies for maltreatment of Zoey this year, according to police sources. The grim family portrait painted by investigators stands in stark contrast to the image Martin put forth online. The dad’s Facebook page is dominated by photos of Zoey, including a profile picture depicting the two of them. “I missing her so much [sic],” the dad commented on a photo of the girl posted three weeks ago.

Sunday was just his second weekend alone with the child since splitting with her mother, one of Coleman’s sisters said. An older snap shows Martin, Zoey and Coleman smiling happily together. Bizarrely, Martin posted a photo of the girl just hours before she was killed — showing her sitting with freshly styled hair in what appears to be a salon with balloons in the background. “She was adorable,” Coleman’s sister said of Zoey. “She liked her kitchen set, her tea set. She liked cooking for her mom, for her grandmother. She was just – I guess what you would call a normal 3-year-old girl.”