Prosecutors say the suspect targeted a Flushing building at random after losing his job.
NEW YORK, NY — A Queens man has been charged with murder and arson after prosecutors said he set a fire in a Flushing residential building last month, killing four people, including a 3-year-old girl, in what authorities described as a random and deadly act.
Roman Amatitla, 38, was arraigned Thursday in Queens and ordered held without bail after prosecutors said he set the March 16 blaze to “get out his rage” after losing his job. The case has drawn wide attention because investigators said Amatitla did not know the victims and had no known link to the building. Four residents died, several others were injured escaping the flames, and two firefighters were hurt, turning a neighborhood fire into a major homicide prosecution with a court return date now ahead.
Prosecutors said the fire began around 12:30 p.m. on March 16 at a mixed-use building near College Point Boulevard and Avery Avenue in Flushing. According to the criminal complaint, Amatitla was seen on surveillance video entering and leaving the building several times before the fire. Investigators said he then crossed the street, bought matches and a beer at a gas station, stole another beer, and returned to the property. Inside the first-floor stairwell, prosecutors said, he lit a piece of paper and placed it on a pile of trash. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said the building was chosen at random and called the case “an act of mass murder.” Soon after the fire took hold, residents were seen trying to flee through windows as smoke and flames spread through the structure.
The dead were identified by authorities as Sihan Yang, 3, Chengri Cui, 49, Shin Chie, 61, and Hong Zhao, 64. Prosecutors said Yang, Cui and Chie were found unconscious and unresponsive inside the building and were pronounced dead at the scene from smoke inhalation. Zhao died after jumping from a window to escape and suffering blunt force trauma. Officials said four other people were treated for injuries, some of them severe, after leaping from the building. Two firefighters were also hurt when a staircase collapsed and sent them into the basement. The criminal complaint said Amatitla later told investigators he knew the building was occupied and that someone could be harmed, but that he set the fire anyway because he needed an outlet for his anger after being fired. His lawyer, Vivian Cedeno, said outside court that the charges are accusations and that he is presumed innocent.
The case also revived attention on the building itself, which had been under scrutiny before the fire. Earlier reporting after the blaze showed city inspectors and fire officials were examining a history of complaints tied to illegal conversions and overcrowding. Neighbors had described long-running problems at the property and said conditions appeared to worsen after the previous owner died. City records cited in local reports showed the upper floors had been under a vacate order, and the Department of Buildings had logged complaints and violations over the years. NY1 reported that a January violation involved failure to maintain the building and extension cords running through hallways from the first to the third floors. Officials have not said that those conditions caused the fire, and prosecutors now allege the blaze was intentionally set. Still, the record around the property has become part of the broader public discussion over how such a deadly fire unfolded in a building that neighbors had long viewed as troubled.
Before the arrest, the city’s chief medical examiner had already ruled the four deaths homicides, shifting the investigation from a deadly fire inquiry to a criminal case focused on arson and murder. Authorities said police detectives, fire marshals and building inspectors worked through the scene and records in what became a joint investigation. Amatitla was later arrested at his home in Queens. Prosecutors charged him with eight counts of second-degree murder, as well as arson, assault and petit larceny counts tied to the events described in the complaint. Authorities have said he faces 25 years to life if convicted. At Thursday’s arraignment, the judge ordered him held without bail. He is due back in court Monday, when the case is expected to move into its next procedural stage while prosecutors continue turning over evidence and preparing for further hearings.
For neighbors and survivors, the case has added a grim explanation to a fire that was already one of the most traumatic in the area in recent memory. Local television images from the day of the blaze showed a heavily damaged building, broken windows and firefighters battling flames for hours as residents gathered outside. Witnesses described chaos as people shouted for relatives and tried to get out. Katz said the defendant “intentionally let it burn,” a phrase that underscored the prosecution’s argument that the deaths were not the result of recklessness alone but of a deliberate act. Defense counsel has not publicly addressed the factual allegations in the complaint beyond urging that the case proceed through the legal process. For now, the names of the dead, the accounts of people jumping for safety and the random nature of the alleged target have made the case stand out even in a city used to high-profile criminal prosecutions.
As of Friday, Amatitla remained in custody without bail and prosecutors were preparing for his next court appearance Monday. The homicide and arson case now turns to pretrial proceedings, where evidence from surveillance video, witness accounts and investigators’ records is likely to shape what comes next.
Author note: Last updated April 10, 2026.