On March 16th, firefighters in the Queens part of New York City battled a blaze that left four people between the ages of 3 and 63 dead.
The fire was deliberately set, according to investigators:
The fire happened on March 16 at an apartment building on Avery Avenue in Flushing.
Firefighters responded to the building to find heavy flames. Crews reported seeing three people jump from an upper floor as the flames spread.
After the fire was put out, firefighters found three people, a 3-year-old girl, a 50-year-old man and a 61-year-old woman, dead inside. Paramedics also brought a 63-year-old man to the hospital, where he later died from his injuries.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later ruled the fire a homicide.
On April 8th, authorities arrested 38-year-old Roman Ceron Amatitla, an illegal alien from Mexico, and he was charged with arson and murder.
According to prosecutors, the suspect admitted he set the fire because he had been fired earlier in the day (the building itself was not connected to the suspect losing his job). And after he allegedly set it, prosecutors say he watched the blaze grow and watched people in the building jump from the second floor while he sipped on beer he allegedly stole from a nearby convenience store:
The accused Queens arsonist arrested for killing four strangers, including a 3-year-old girl, set the fire randomly to get out his anger over being fired that day — and then sat on the curb and sipped a stolen beer as he watched panicked victims jumping out windows, prosecutors said Thursday.[…]Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz called the deadly arson “an act of mass murder” and “one of the greatest crimes that this borough has seen in a very long time.”[…]Amatitla was seen repeatedly entering and leaving the building before setting the blaze, even urinating in front of it, according to prosecutors.Cops arrested Amatitla on Wednesday, charging him with multiple counts of murder, assault and arson. He was also charged with petty larceny for swiping the beer from a nearby BP gas station.
On April 16th, DHS said that ICE requested on the 14th that the NY Department of Corrections not release Amatitla, but that they told them they would not cooperate with ICE:
“This monster set fire to a building and watched as innocent people, including a three-year-old, burned to death. New York City sanctuary politicians REFUSE to cooperate with ICE and are committing to RELEASING this MURDERER onto New York streets,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. “New York’s sanctuary politicians must stop putting politics above public safety. We are calling on Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani to commit to honoring this detainer and turning him over.”New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani signed an Executive Order turning New York City into a shield for violent criminal illegal aliens to reoffend and create more innocent victims.Mamdani’s action came after Governor Kathy Hochul’s legislative proposal to bar local police departments from partnering and cooperating with ICE law enforcement.
Though the NYDOC refused to work with ICE, the good news is that it doesn’t appear the suspect is going anywhere:
Law enforcement sources familiar with the case dismissed the notion presented by DHS.“He’s not going anywhere,” one said. Amatitla will remain detained on Rikers Island until his next court appearance on May 12. At his arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on April 9, Amatitla was remanded into custody without bail after he was arraigned on a complaint charging him with eight counts of murder in the second degree, arson in the first degree, and multiple counts of assault
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz confirmed as much on Friday:
DHS says the date Amatitla first illegally entered the United States is unknown.
– Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via X. –
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