{"id":191171,"date":"2026-04-09T18:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191171\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T18:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T18:29:08","slug":"queens-man-lit-fire-that-killed-4-including-child-and-just-let-it-burn-da-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191171\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens man lit fire that killed 4, including child, and “just let it burn,” DA says"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queens man was arraigned Thursday over his alleged involvement in a\u00a0fire that killed four people, including a child<\/a>, last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Roman Amatitla, 38, faces second degree murder, arson, assault and petit larceny charges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

3-year-old killed<\/p>\n

Prosecutors claim Amatitla set the March 16 fire in the apartment building at Avery Avenue and College Point Boulevard. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Sihan Yang, 3, and Chengri Cui, 50, Chie Shin Ming and Hong Zhao were killed. The medical examiner\u00a0ruled all four deaths homicides<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"lushing-multi-alarm-fire-citizen-0316-live-hi-res-still.jpg<\/p>\n

Firefighters battle a blaze in Flushing, Queens on March 16, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Citizen.com<\/p>\n

“This was pandemonium. This was a burning fire, this was a house that was on fire, and what led up to fire is really quite disturbing,” Queens DA Melinda Katz said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“He intentionally let it burn”<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said there’s no apparent connection between Amatitla and either the home set on fire, or the people who lived there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Surveillance video captured him going in and out of the building three times, prosecutors said. According to the criminal complaint, he allegedly crossed the street, went to a gas station, shoplifted one beer while purchasing another, and picked up some matches. He then returned to the building a fourth time, according to prosecutors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Back at the building, he allegedly lit a piece of paper on fire, and put the burning paper into the garbage at the bottom of the first floor stairwell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“And just let it burn. And he intentionally let it burn. And four people were killed. Three people died of smoke inhalation, including a 3-year-old child,” Katz said.<\/p>\n

Zhao had jumped from a window to escape the flames and smoke, and died from injuries sustained in the fall, according to the criminal complaint.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two firefighters were hospitalized when the second floor of the structure fell apart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amatitla allegedly told the NYPD he started the fire because he had gotten into a fight at work and had been fired, and “needed to get his anger out,” according to the criminal complaint. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Katz called it “one of the greatest crimes this borough has seen in a very long time.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Our client has been charged, but a charge is not a conviction. We intend to vigorously defend him, and I would ask that we let the legal system play out, because right now, he’s presumed innocent,” Amatitla’s defense attorney Vivian Cedeno said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queens man was arraigned Thursday over his alleged involvement in a\u00a0fire that killed four people, including a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[3094,545,648,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-191171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-arson","tag-fire","tag-flushing","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}