Man Is Charged With Arson in Fire at an L.G.B.T.Q. Club in Brooklyn

“I had simply gotten executed with the cocktail coaching and the opposite bartender was like, ‘Oh, Tyler, go downstairs and get some beer and I’ll present you the place we restock it,’” Mx. Glenn mentioned.

It was whereas Mx. Glenn was downstairs that, based on the prosecutors’ narrative of occasions, Mr. Lhota entered the membership and set it on hearth. After they got here again upstairs, they observed that the air was a lot foggier than it had been simply earlier than.

“My thought course of was like, ‘Oh, the smoke machine — they actually turned it up for the occasion that’s about to occur,’” Mx. Glenn mentioned. “I received up there and it’s arduous to breathe. I flip and there’s only a big hearth.” They mentioned their accidents, which included burns on their nostril and lips, had begun to heal.

A witness who was throughout the road when the hearth started described seeing a person matching Mr. Lhota’s description working off after dashing out a aspect door of the constructing, the criticism says. A close-by safety digicam additionally captured him fleeing and different cameras tracked him taking a roundabout route house, the criticism says.

A number of days later, the criticism says, Mr. Lhota was arrested by the New York Metropolis police after a girl known as 911 and accused him of assaulting her. She subsequently recognized him because the arsonist proven within the safety digicam footage, the criticism says.

Mr. Lhota faces costs of strangulation, a felony, and misdemeanor assault and harassment in state court docket in Brooklyn in reference to the episode, court docket data present. A Authorized Help Society lawyer representing him in that case couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.

On his LinkedIn web page, Mr. Lhota identifies himself as a software program developer and a graduate of Hunter School Excessive College in Manhattan and Brown College, educational affiliations confirmed by way of on-line sources.