An alleged Mexican illegal migrant was charged with murder and arson after he allegedly killed four people by setting fire to a New York City apartment building.
Roman Amatitla, 38, was charged with “eight counts of murder in the second degree, arson in the first degree, two counts of assault in the first degree, arson in the second degree, two counts of assault in the second degree and petit larceny,” according to a press release from Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.
The charges brought against Amatitla come after he allegedly “entered the ground floor of a three-story building” in Flushing on March 16. Amatitla proceeded to stay “in the vicinity of the property” for several minutes, urinated, and “entered and exited the premises” several times before going to a “nearby gas station,” according to the press release.
While at the gas station, Amatitla “purchased a beer, stole another beer and asked the clerk for a lighter,” however, he “settled for a pack of matches.” Amatitla went on to enter the apartment building “for a fourth time,” where he “lit a piece of paper on fire and placed the flaming paper on top of garbage located near a stairwell,” according to the press release.
“This was an act of mass murder,” Katz said in a 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.”
As a result of the fire, three-year-old Sihan Yang, 49-year-old Chengri Cui, 61-year-old Shin Chie Ming, and 64-year-old Hong Zhao died, according to the press release.
On Thursday, prosecutors explained that Amatitla picked the apartment building “after losing his food processing job,” and “watched as people jumped from various windows” after allegedly starting the fire, the New York Post reported.
“He indicated that he watched as people jumped from various windows, some of them living, one of them dying,” Queens Assistant District Attorney Gabriel Reale stated.
Breitbart News reported in March that the grassroots group, Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) released a list which showed that roughly 1,411 people had been killed by illegal immigrants.
Agnes Gibboney stated that the number was “a very conservative number,” and suggested that it was more like 20,000 “at least.”