Disgruntled Customer Sought In Delivery Worker's Murder: Reports
FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — A customer reportedly aggrieved over duck sauce may be connected to the fatal shooting of a Forest Hills delivery worker, according to multiple reports.
Law enforcement sources told multiple outlets that a disgruntled customer is wanted for questioning in connection to the murder of Zhiwen Yan, 45, a longtime delivery worker at the Great Wall Chinese restaurant who was gunned down mid-shift Saturday night, police said.
The 50-year-old customer in question menaced staff with a gun, vandalized their vehicles and harassed them outside of the restaurant after a duck sauce dispute last year, the New York Post reported.
Kai Yang, owner of the Great Wall on Queens Boulevard, told the Post that the customer flew into a rage last November over the amount of duck sauce he got with an order.
After taking all of the to-go duck sauce containers from the restaurant's self-service bin, the customer demanded more of the condiment as well as a refund.
"I say, 'Sorry, it’s COVID, I can’t take your order back after, and I give you more duck sauce.' He calls police!" Yang told the Post through an interpreter. "[After that] my car start[ed] getting damaged," he said.
In the following months, Yang said that he repeatedly called police about the customer — citing instances of harassment and vandalism — but nothing came of his complaints. Then, in January, the man threatened workers at gunpoint, Yang told the Post.
Law enforcement sources confirmed with NBC New York that restaurant workers filed a police report that month against a person who they said threatened them at gunpoint.
Police, however, wouldn't confirm with the Post if the disgruntled customer had ever been arrested for an encounter at the restaurant, noting that he hasn't been officially named as a suspect or person of interest in Yan's murder.
The man, whose name the Post is withholding at this time, has at least one arrest dating to 2001 on a charge of armed robbery in Queens, according to the outlet.
U.S. Rep. Grace Meng visited the Yan family — Zhiwen was a husband and father of three, according to a GoFundMe made on behalf of the family— Sunday afternoon and shared a photograph of his grieving widow staring down at the concrete, a friend holding her hand.
"This delivery worker was working hard, trying to earn a living to support his family when he was senselessly shot and killed," she said. "The person responsible must face justice."
Yan's killing comes shortly after another murder in the 112th Precinct, a usually low-crime area of Queens encompassing Forest Hills and Rego Park.
Last month, Orsolya Gaal, a Forest Hills mother, was stabbed to death over 50 times; her mutilated body later found in a duffel bag by Forest Park. David Bonola, Gaal's handyman and on-and-off lover, stands accused of her murder.
Kathleen Culliton, regional manager of Patch's New York City bureau, contributed to this report.
Related Article: Delivery Worker Shot Dead In Forest Hills, Officials Say
Disgruntled Customer Sought In Delivery Worker's Murder: Reports originally appeared on the Forest Hills Patch
