He had a fight at work and got fired, so he set a building on a fire and watched it burn, officials say, as the smoke killed a 3-year-old girl and two other people, and a fourth died after jumping out a window to escape.
That’s what 38-year old Roman Amatitla did on March 16 at the corner of Avery Avenue and College Point Boulevard in Flushing, according to police and prosecutors, who say he had no connection to the building or any of the people he killed. He allegedly just needed to take his anger out on someone.
Amatitla entered and exited the building a couple of times and admitted hearing people speaking inside before he set the fire, according to the criminal complaint against him. He was arraigned April 9 on eight counts of second-degree murder, four counts each under two different sections of the law; first-degree arson; second-degree arson; one count each of first-degree assault under two different sections of the law; two counts of second-degree assault; and petit larceny.
He was remanded and is being held on Rikers Island, according to the city Department of Correction’s online database. The entry lists his country of birth as Mexico but does not include any indication of immigration status. He next appears in court on April 13 and could be imprisoned for 25 years to life if convicted.
The prelude to the horror began around 11:43 a.m. the day of the fire when, according to the Queens District Attorney’s Office, Amatitla entered 132-05 Avery Ave. and left a minute later. He hung around for 15 minutes, urinated in front of the building, went in and out two more times over the next seven minutes and then left.
He went across the street to a gas station, allegedly stole one beer and bought another one and asked the clerk for a lighter. Told he would have to pay for it, he settled for a book of matches instead, the DA’s Office said.
Amatitla allegedly then returned to the building, lit a piece of paper on fire and set it on top of some garbage located near a stairwell.
“Shortly afterward, smoke began to fill the street,” Katz’s office said in a press release announcing the charges. “The defendant stayed in the immediate area and watched the fire consume the building.”
The blaze also spread to the attached building at 44-49 College Point Blvd. The first call reporting it came in at 12:29 p.m.
The FDNY deployed 47 units with 231 fire and Emergency Medical Services personnel, and brought the four-alarm blaze under control by 2:44 p.m.
“This was an act of mass murder,” the DA said in a prepared statement. “As alleged, Roman Amatitla deliberately set a fire in an occupied building and killed four people, including a 3-year-old girl. Shockingly, the defendant had no known connection to the building or any of its occupants and selected the building at random. I thank the brave FDNY members who risked their lives to save others in the building and the NYPD and US Marshals Service for apprehending this defendant.”
The FDNY posted a photo of Amatitla on its X account, saying he was arrested after an extensive investigation and noting that fire marshals with the department’s Bureau of Fire Investigation assisted other law enforcement agencies in tracking him down.
The NYPD announced his arrest on April 8, saying it occurred at 3:40 p.m. that day somewhere within the 109th Precinct, which is where the fire occurred.
The four people killed in the blaze were Sihan Yang, 3, who was found dead on a third-floor bed; Chengri Cui, a 49-year-old man, and Shin Chie Ming, a 61-year-old woman, who also were found dead inside the building and, like Sihan, died of smoke inhalation; and Hong Zhao, a 64-year-old man who jumped out of a window to escape the fire but died of his injuries, which included multiple broken bones and brain trauma, according to the DA’s Office.
Four other people were injured jumping from the building, with one still hospitalized late last week, the office said. That person suffered severe burns and blunt force trauma, including to the head, according to the criminal complaint. A fifth person was rescued from a second-floor window by the FDNY and was treated for smoke inhalation.
Two firemen with Engine Co. 273, Lt. Dan Cronin and firefighter Jose Carillo, were injured as they were searching for people inside, when a staircase connecting the first, second and third floors collapsed and they fell to the basement, according to the criminal complaint. They were transported to NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi in the Bronx for treatment of burns and smoke inhalation.
Amatitla’s activities before and during the fire were captured on surveillance video, according to the criminal complaint against him, which was sworn to by a detective with the 109th Precinct. The defendant told the detective, who also spoke with numerous victims, firefighters, hospital staff, doctors with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and other witnesses, that he was the man seen on the video.
Fire Marshal Charles Nieves of the FDNY told the detective he had investigated the blaze and that its cause was “incendiary.”
The detective said in the complaint, “the defendant admitted, in sum and substance, to starting the fire at the incident location as a way to get his rage out over being fired from an unrelated job by individuals unrelated to the incident location.”