14 DAY TRIAL // A 25-year-old man has been charged with the brutal murder of a family of five in New York City. Chinese native Mingdong Chen allegedly “cut and butchered [the victims] with a kitchen knife.”
NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks III tells CBS New York that Chen has killed his cousin’s wife and her four children. The horrific crime took place in Sunset Park on Saturday.
“I know I am done,” he said when relatives realized what he had done.
The Chinese immigrant had been staying with his cousin for a week prior to the murders. He has been in the United States for 10 years, and he has been fired from a series of job recently.
On Saturday, he was behaving in an odd manner, and the victim, 37-year-old mother, Qiao Zhen Li, tried contacting her husband.
She even called her mother-in-law in China to discuss Chen's erratic behavior. Li's sister-in-law and her husband discovered the bodies at around 11 p.m.
“The sister arrives at the location with her husband and they bang on the door and they bang on the door. [Chen] opens the door and they see that he’s covered in blood,” Banks describes.
Chen will appear in court on Friday. He was arraigned on Monday, but said nothing during the proceedings, NY Daily News reported.
He is currently detained without bail and his attorney claims that he has been bruised and injured while being in police custody. He has also been charged with assaulting a police officer.
“Horrific, horrific crime. [...] It’s a scene you’ll never forget,” Banks says.
He mentions that the suspect has implicated himself in the crime.
“He made a very short comment that since he’s been in this country everybody seems to be doing better than him, and that was a short comment. [...] We’re not really sure what that means,” he adds.