Longqian Chen, Brooklyn uncle shot by NYPD after attacking his 4 female nieces at Bensonhurst address in domestic violence attack. 4 young girls, 8, 11, 13 and 16 survive. Mental illness cited.
A Brooklyn ‘Chinese’ man described as being related to his victims is alleged to have attacked four young girls with a meat cleaver in Bensonhurst on Sunday. The incident led to responding NYC police gunning the assailant after refusing to desist.
The suspect, identified as Lun Chang Chen, 49, (also being spelt as Longqian Chen) attacked four girls with a meat cleaver in a Brooklyn home on Sunday morning before he was shot by the police, who rushed to the house after one of the injured children called 911, the NYPD said.
All four girls, ages 8, 11, 13 and 16, suffered serious slash and stab wounds but were expected to survive, Jessica Tisch, the police commissioner, said at a news conference near the home in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn.
The assailant was described as the victims’ uncle and was alone with them along with a boy at the time of the attack. Chen was taken to a nearby hospital in critical condition, Commissioner Tisch told reporters.
She praised the ‘brave’ 11-year-old girl, who hid in a room to call 911, as well as the officers who kicked down a locked door to reach the children and police communications technicians who were able to track the phone the girl had used to identify the home’s address.
Those actions, the commissioner said, ‘absolutely saved the lives of the young girls.’
‘This could have ended very differently,’ she added.
Authorities did not say what led up to the attack.
Police told of not previously receiving a report of domestic violence at the home, John Chell, the chief of department, said. Nevertheless, Commissioner Tisch said that, according to family members, Mr. Chen had a history of mental illness.
The 911 call came in around 10:15 a.m., Commissioner Tisch said. The 11-year-old said on the phone that Mr. Chen had stabbed her and her siblings in their home on 84th Street near 17th Avenue the nydailynews reported.
When officers and emergency medical workers arrived, a boy, who was not injured and who had run to a neighbor’s house to ask for help, opened the outside door and led them into a vestibule. The officers could hear the children screaming behind an apartment door, the commissioner said.
The officers forced open the door, which was locked, and saw Mr. Chen holding the meat cleaver, covered in blood, Commissioner Tisch said. There was blood on the walls and the floor, she said.
The officers ordered Mr. Chen several times to drop the weapon, but he refused and moved toward the officers, she said.
Two officers, who fired seven total rounds, shot him, Commissioner Tisch said.
The cleaver was recovered along with a bloody knife found in another room, she said.
Susan Zhuang, a City Council member who represents a neighboring district and speaks Mandarin, said the stabbings had rocked the close-knit Asian American community in south Brooklyn, which she said has little access to mental health support. Most of the residents, Ms. Zhuang said, do not speak English, the nytimes reported.
‘It’s very hard, and they don’t know how to get the resources,’ she said.
Neighbors, who described the area as being safe, family-oriented and diverse, said it was surreal that violence of this kind had happened there.
‘It’s shocking,” said Suk Ma, a woman in her 50s who lives nearby and whose children live next door. ‘I’ve been here 30 years, and nothing like this ever happened.’
Authorities continue to investigate.
