The death of a child locked in a car on fire ruled on a homicide

The tragic death of the 3-year-old girl who was locked in a car on fire in Queens is a homicide, police said Monday.

The little Zoey Pereira was left in the 2008 Audi sedan – who was chained – when she burned shortly before 9 pm. Sunday near Baisley Boulevard and 155th Street. She was transported to the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, but could not be saved.

His Valley Stream father, 39, was on fire while he was fleeing the scene, according to police sources and witnesses. He jumped into the Baisley Pond to extinguish the flames.

The father was also taken to the Jamaican hospital with second- and third-degree burns, sources said. The father, whose name was not immediately published, was later taken to Weill Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan and is now in police custody.

Officials had received a 911 call about a car stopped in the middle of the intersection. When the authorities arrived, they found that the interior of the car was on fire and that the windows of the fully engulfed sedan were closed, said Deputy Chief Joseph Gallucci. Investigators found a gas cartridge in the street and another in the back, sources said.

The incident, which is still under investigation, appears to have been linked to a custody dispute.