A Queens man was arrested on suspicion of murdering a longstanding delivery driver for a neighborhood Chinese restaurant over a quarrel about duck sauce.
According to a statement from the NYPD, Glenn Hirsch, 51, was detained last Wednesday at his house near Briarwood and charged with criminal possession of a handgun for the fatal shooting of Zhiwen Yan, 45, on April 30.
Hirsch appeared in Queens Supreme Court for the second time on Wednesday. Hirsch’s mother and brother were in court, as were a number of demonstrators demanding Yan’s release.
During a check of Hirsch’s wife’s home, cops discovered eight weapons. Hirsch does not live with her.
That was not the case when they arrived at Hirsch’s house. Cops allegedly discovered his refrigerator brimming with sweet and sour duck sauce.
According to the New York Daily News, ‘his entire refrigerator was loaded with duck sauce.’ ‘As well as other condiments,’ she adds.
‘He’s a hoarder,’ says the narrator. When you open the refrigerator, you’ll see condiments like duck sauce, soy sauce, and ketchup.’
Hirsch’s heaps of condiments at his residence on 141st Street in Jamaica, according to the source, were all part of what was going on in his head that drove him to kill.
They said, ‘I guess some pathological people take that stuff quite seriously – you didn’t give him enough duck sauce.’
Hirsch has pled not guilty and is being jailed without bail despite having nine prior offenses on his record.
He has not yet been charged with a hate crime in the case, which some protestors outside Queens Supreme Court Tuesday found to be a subject of dispute.
The protestors carried posters implying the police failed to protect Yan, as well as images of the victim and a sign that read: ‘This was a HATE CRIME.’ Don’t dismiss it.’
Protests against gun violence and anti-Asian discrimination also took place.
Yan, a father of three who relocated to New York more than two decades ago, was shot in the chest while performing his rounds on his scooter in Forest Hills, Queens, according to officials.
Yan and Hirsch, who was reported to be driving an older model Lexus RX3 SV at the time of the shooting, had a few words at a traffic signal before Yan was shot near 108th Street and 67th Drive, in an area that is generally quiet and close-knit.
Hirsch fled the scene, according to a witness who was nearby. Hirsch was caught on security camera pacing around the restaurant for about an hour the night of the incident before following Yan, according to cops.
Hirsch’s lawyer, Michael Horn, told DailyMail.com that after the grand jury hearing last Wednesday, a warrant was issued for his arrest. The Queens District Attorney’s office, on the other hand, ‘decided not to honor my professional courtesy to bring [Hirsch] in wherever possible, where required, and they literally kicked down his door last night and forced their way to a fearful man who doesn’t know what’s going on,’ he continued.
Yan had been working at the Great Wall restaurant for more than a decade before his death, according to 53-year-old coworker Kai Yang of the New York Daily News. Yan worked seven days a week and maintained three jobs to support his family.
Hirsch, according to the site, has a lengthy criminal record. Between 1995 and 2012, he was arrested nine times, but none of them are public since they are sealed. According to police sources, one of the arrests is related to Hirsch committing a robbery with a gun.
Horn said: ‘They’re not relevant. We know that accusations are meaningless without any judication… The District Attorney is taking what I consider to be a thin case and trying to put as much garnish as possible to make the sandwich look bigger.’
A restaurant employee, Soi Chung, 70, told DailyMail.com that Hirsch had ‘multiple’ disputes with staff at the eatery and pulled a gun on staffers during one incident in January.
Another incident last year saw the angry customer become peeved over the amount of duck sauce given to him in one of his orders, Chung told The New York Post, spurring a campaign of harassment, vandalism, and threats from the customer.
The most brazen threat from the customer, Chung said, came earlier this year, when Hirsch menacingly waved a gun at the restaurant workers, spurring them to call 911.
Restaurant owner Kai Yang told the Post that the angry customer was put to the ground by employees, which included Yan, shortly after he came inside with the firearm.
Horn said on Thursday: ‘If my client had an argument with the manager, then why is he having a fight or assaulted a delivery guy who everybody seems to like. There was no delivery.’
Meanwhile, Yan leaves behind a wife and three children, aged two, 12, and 14.
‘This was a father of three children working three jobs – all food delivery,’ Yan’s nephew, who identified himself as Michael, said during a presser in April held outside the family’s home in neighboring Middle Village.
‘He came here in 2001,’ the relative went on. ‘He has been in this country over 20 years.’
He added: ‘It’s unacceptable that this happened. This is a very peaceful community. This never happened, this kind of issue.’
Despite Yan’s coworkers’ assertions that Hirsch was threatening, it’s unclear whether the delivery man was a targeted target.
Kunying Zhao, Yan’s wife, set up a GoFundMe campaign.
On May 1, Zhao said, ‘I’m beginning a fundraising for my husband because he passed away last night.’ ‘He was a dedicated delivery driver who always looked after his family.’
As of Wednesday morning, the page has raised $212,799, surpassing its $100,000 goal.
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