Kenneth Rickenbacker

Introduction

Kenneth Rickenbacker, a 44-year-old Brooklyn man, was arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Monday, October 26, 2026, on charges including attempted murder and arson after prosecutors alleged he doused his 38-year-old girlfriend with rubbing alcohol and set her on fire inside a Crown Heights apartment as the couple’s 11-year-old daughter watched from feet away. The victim suffered severe burns to her face, head, back and hands and was placed in a medically induced coma at the Weill Cornell Hospital burn unit in Manhattan; a police source with knowledge of the crime told the Daily News she is pregnant. Rickenbacker appeared at his arraignment with his head wrapped in bandages his lawyer attributed to burns, and was remanded into custody.

Background Information

Court records and police statements describe Rickenbacker as the father of the 11-year-old who witnessed the attack, living around the Kingsborough Houses, a NYCHA complex in Crown Heights. He was previously convicted in 2017 of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and released on parole in 2024, according to state records cited by the Daily News and amNewYork. No occupation, public social-media presence or prior public profile appears in any of the coverage. The assault followed what police described as a verbal dispute on the evening of Saturday, October 24, when he stopped by the apartment to pick up his daughter. He has made no public statement; his account of the fire, given to police, is summarized in court documents reported by amNewYork.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Charged, not convicted. Rickenbacker faces attempted murder, arson, assault, weapons possession and child-endangerment counts; the allegations are unadjudicated and he is presumed innocent. His own account — an accident — is directly contradicted, per court records, by his 11-year-old daughter.

Prosecutors allege Rickenbacker got into a verbal dispute with his girlfriend inside an apartment at the Kingsborough Houses around 5:11 p.m. on October 24, dosed her with rubbing alcohol, and set her ablaze. According to court documents, he first threatened the 11-year-old with a knife before the fiery assault, and the girl told police he poured the alcohol on her mother and warned her not to tell anyone or he would “hurt” both her and her mother. When first responders arrived, they found smoke pouring from the apartment door and could hear the victim crying out in pain near a burned mattress. She was rushed to the Weill Cornell burn unit with severe burns to her face, head, back and hands, and placed in a medically induced coma; the Daily News, citing a police source, reported she is pregnant. Rickenbacker, who the Daily News describes as her ex-boyfriend, allegedly fled the scene — and was arrested hours later when he walked into the 113th Precinct in Queens to report the fire himself, sources told amNewYork. His account to police was that the blaze was an accident: he said his girlfriend already had rubbing alcohol on her hands and tried to attack him when he arrived to pick up his daughter, and that when he pushed her away she caught fire from a lit cigarette in her hand. Per amNewYork, that story was directly contradicted by his own daughter’s account to police.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The case drew immediate tabloid and local coverage across the city, with the details that drew the widest attention being the child witness, the alleged knife threats and the report that the burned woman is pregnant. Outlets leaned on the court documents, quoting the daughter’s account that her father set the fire and then told her to keep quiet. amNewYork, which broke much of the early detail, closed its report with the city’s 24-hour domestic-violence hotline, 1-800-621-HOPE — a framing that placed the case among New York’s domestic-violence stories rather than a random attack. Photos of Rickenbacker at his arraignment, his head almost entirely wrapped in gauze, circulated with the coverage after his first court appearance. No public statement from Rickenbacker, his lawyer or the victim’s family appeared in the reports as of October 26.

Current Status

Rickenbacker was charged with attempted murder, arson, assault, criminal weapons possession and acting in a manner injurious to a child younger than 17, and arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on Monday, October 26, 2026. He was remanded into custody and is being held without bail, per the Daily News and amNewYork. The charges are accusations: he has not been tried, no trial date is known, and no plea has been reported. The victim remained hospitalized in a medically induced coma in the latest reports, and no update on her condition had been made public as of October 26.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Rickenbacker is a 44-year-old held without bail facing attempted murder and arson counts that carry the potential of decades in prison if proven, on top of a 2017 weapons conviction for which he was paroled in 2024 — a record the Daily News and amNewYork both folded into their coverage. The allegations against him, as set out in a sworn criminal complaint and repeated across the city’s tabloids, include burning the mother of his child and threatening their 11-year-old into silence with a knife. Whatever the court process yields, the daughter’s account to police — that her father set the fire and told her not to tell — is now part of the public record of the case. The charges remain unadjudicated and he is presumed innocent of them.

Sources

• New York Post, “Alleged arsonist sets girlfriend on fire inside NYC apartment as daughter watched in horror: prosecutors,” October 26, 2026 — source
• amNewYork, “Brooklyn man arrested for setting girlfriend on fire with rubbing alcohol in front of young daughter,” October 26, 2026 — source
• New York Daily News, “Man arrested for setting pregnant ex-girlfriend on fire in front of daughter in Brooklyn: cops,” October 26, 2026 — source