Marine's Heroics Amid Arson Allegations
PHOTO CAPTION: U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Marshall Martinez, a combat engineer with III Marine Expeditionary Force Support Battalion, poses for a photo at Camp Hansen, Okinawa, in August 2026. Martinez ran into a burning hotel in Chatan to alert sleeping guests and helped efforts to reach an unconscious man trapped inside. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Staff Sgt. Forde Nesteby)
A Marine who ran into a burning Okinawa hotel last month to wake sleeping guests may have unknowingly interrupted what Japanese police now allege was an attempt to kill 18 people inside.
Okinawa Prefectural Police arrested 32-year-old American tourist Posedion Alexzander Roberson on Sept. 1 on suspicion of arson and attempted murder in connection with the Aug. 15 fire at Hotel Hamby Resort in Chatan. Police allege Roberson, who was staying at the hotel, deliberately set the building on fire intending to kill the 18 other guests.
The suspect was referred to the Naha Public Prosecutors Office on Thursday, Sept. 3, as investigators continue examining the motive and circumstances surrounding the fire. Japanese authorities have not publicly disclosed whether Roberson has admitted or denied the allegations.
Marine Lance Cpl. Marshall Martinez, a 25-year-old combat engineer with III Marine Expeditionary Force Support Battalion, encountered the burning hotel while walking home with his girlfriend during the early morning hours of Aug. 15.
With the building already burning, Martinez went inside and began banging on doors and waking occupants so they could evacuate. He later said his first thought was that people were probably still asleep because of the hour.
After Martinez and his girlfriend initially believed everyone had escaped, bystanders noticed a flashing light coming from part of the building. Someone was still trapped inside.
Martinez returned toward the structure with others and tried using a fire extinguisher before attempting to reach the trapped occupant through a window. When flames, heat and smoke made that route too dangerous, the combat engineer began looking for another way inside.
Martinez and others eventually began prying open the side of the building. His combat-engineer and urban-breaching training helped him identify a better way to open the structure before firefighters arrived and removed the final occupant, according to the Marine Corps.
That occupant, a 55-year-old man from Osaka Prefecture, had been found unconscious after suffering injuries including carbon-monoxide poisoning. Japanese reporting says he later regained consciousness, though he remained under medical treatment this week.
Police now allege the fire was not accidental.
Investigators say Roberson deliberately started the blaze at approximately 3:30 a.m. while knowing other guests were inside. Authorities have not publicly identified a motive beyond alleging that he intended to kill the hotel's other occupants.
The fire partially destroyed the hotel and took firefighters roughly four hours to extinguish. Japanese television reporting said approximately half the building and a nearby vehicle burned.
Roberson left the area after the fire, according to Japanese police. Six days later, officers arrested him in a separate case after allegedly finding him unlawfully inside a building complex in Urasoe; investigators subsequently developed the arson and attempted-murder allegations related to the hotel.
The Marine Corps says Martinez is now being recommended for the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for his actions during the fire. No presentation date had been set as of Wednesday.
Martinez described his response more simply after the rescue.
“Don’t be a bystander. Jump toward action.”
What initially emerged as a story about a Marine responding to a dangerous hotel fire now carries a much darker context: police allege the blaze Martinez ran toward was deliberately started in an effort to kill the people he was trying to get out.
Sources: Okinawa Prefectural Police reporting via Stars and Stripes and Okinawan media; U.S. Marine Corps
(Source: OAF Nation)
