Police Arrest a Man They Say Abused a Corpse on the R Train

A Brooklyn man was arrested on Monday after the police said he violated a corpse on an R train in a Manhattan subway station earlier this month.

The man, whom police identified as Felix Rojas, 44, was charged with first-degree rape, more than two weeks after the event. Efforts to reach Mr. Rojas on Monday were unsuccessful. He is expected to be arraigned later on Monday, according to a spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney. It was unclear whether he had a lawyer.

A law enforcement official familiar with the case said a man, later identified by police as Mr. Rojas, entered an R train while it was at the Whitehall Street-South Ferry station in the financial district around 11 p.m. on April 9 and was on the train for about 45 minutes before noticing the unconscious man in the car.

The man who died had boarded the train earlier that evening at about 8 p.m., the official said. A spokeswoman for the Police Department said Monday that he had died of natural causes.

After seeing the man’s immobile body, Mr. Rojas rummaged through the dead man’s pockets and had sex with the body, according to an internal police document. Then, they said, he fled the train.

The entire episode was caught on surveillance cameras in the car. There were no other passengers on board at the time.

A manhunt ensued. The police released photos of the person they believed was the perpetrator, and Mr. Rojas was arrested on Sunday at 9:20 p.m., the police said.

The incident was another disturbing event in the city’s vast subway system, even as the Police Department pointed to record-low crime rates during the first three months of the year. While major crimes have declined, violence within the transit system has persisted and to some extent, become increasingly unpredictable.

Mr. Rojas did not have a criminal history and was not listed on the state’s sex offender registry, according to public records.

Angie Sofikitis, 77, who lives in a building next door to Mr. Rojas, said she recognized him as a man who worked doing maintenance on the building. She said Mr. Rojas was part of a churchgoing family with three children who lived on her street for several years until he moved out about a year ago.

Kitty Bennett contributed research.