{"id":228977,"date":"2026-05-12T20:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/228977\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T20:00:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T20:00:36","slug":"queens-man-indicted-on-murder-charges-in-flushing-fire-that-killed-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/228977\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens man indicted on murder charges in Flushing fire that killed 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queens prosecutors have upgraded charges against a man accused of setting a Flushing building fire<\/a> that killed four people in March.<\/p>\n

Roman Amatitla now faces first-degree murder, arson and other charges after he allegedly used matches to start the blaze and watched the building burn while drinking beer.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old Maspeth resident followed a woman into the ground floor of the building on March 16, the Queens district attorney\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors alleged Amatitla started the fire by lighting a piece of paper and placing it on top of trash at the base of the building\u2019s only stairwell exit serving the upper floors. Authorities said he later went to a nearby bodega on Main Street to charge his phone.<\/p>\n

Three of the victims, including 3-year-old Sihan Yang, died from smoke inhalation, according to prosecutors. A fourth victim died after jumping from a window to escape the fire, suffering multiple broken bones and brain trauma.<\/p>\n

Seven other people were injured in the blaze, including two FDNY firefighters who were treated for smoke inhalation and burns.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs alleged, Roman Amatitla killed four people, including a 3-year-old girl, when he torched the building where they lived,\u201d Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement. \u201cHe continues to be held in custody to assure accountability. This was a horrific crime that shocked the city.\u201d<\/p>\n

If convicted, Amatitla faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is scheduled to return to court on July 14.<\/p>\n

An attorney representing Amatitla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queens prosecutors have upgraded charges against a man accused of setting a Flushing building fire that killed four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-228977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","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\/228977","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=228977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}