NYPD detectives have charged the Queens man accused of stabbing his mother-in-law to death and torching the family home before trying to take his own life, police said Saturday.
Wei Sheng Chen, 27, is facing multiple counts of murder, attempted murder, arson, assault and weapons possession for the Thursday afternoon rampage inside the family’s Smart St. home in Flushing.
Chen’s wife was outside the home and screaming for help as the suspect knifed his spouse’s mother, Qiujin Shi, and his 17-year-old brother-in-law, then lit a mattress on fire in a back bedroom around 3:30 p.m., cops said.
As the fire began to spread, Chen then slit one of his wrists in a suicide attempt, according to police.
Neighbors heard Chen’s wife yelling for help and called 911. Responding cops and firefighters put the blaze out within 10 minutes.
One of the first responders was an off-duty, pregnant Port Authority police officer who lived in the area. She rushed to the scene and rendered first aid to the 17-year-old victim when she saw him stumbling outside the home, suffering from a deep gash over his eye and a stab wound to the armpit.
“When I got there, the wife of the stabber was screaming that her mother was stabbed on the floor, unconscious and her husband was starting a fire,” said the Port Authority cop, who wished not to be named. “She was at the door screaming.”
Another neighbor, who also asked to remain anonymous, recalled hearing wordless screams followed by someone shouting, “Call an ambulance!”
“The way that man was screaming… not words, just somebody screaming,” she said, recalling the harrowing sound.
EMS brought Shi, her son and Chen to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Queens, where the mother later died. Chen and Shi’s teen son survived.
“They didn’t put her on no stretcher, no body bag, nothing,” said the neighbor, who saw Shi, 50, being carried out of the torched home. “No cover. Her head was back. She was limp.”
Five police officers also suffered minor injuries from smoke inhalation after rushing into the building. One refused medical attention, and the other four officers were transported to Queens Hospital Center.
Chen remained in police custody at the hospital on Saturday. His arraignment in Queens Criminal court was pending.
According to multiple police sources, as well as a relative of Shi, the explosion of violence stemmed from Chen’s distress over going through a separation with the woman’s daughter.
“They were talking about divorce,” Guqing Zhang, 20, Shi’s nephew, who lives in the home’s basement, told the Daily News on Thursday. “Then there was a lot of shouting. He got drunk … that’s what made him crash out.”
Zhang, who was playing a video game at the time of the attack, said he heard a commotion and ran up the basement stairs to see what was happening.
“When I opened the door, I saw my aunt on the floor not moving,” Zhang said, noting he then noticed his 17-year-old cousin bleeding on the stairs to the second floor.
“They were trying to compress his wounds to keep him from bleeding out,” Zhang said of his cousin.
“I don’t know what to feel,” Zhang said about his aunt’s death. “She was a nice person. She was a strong, strong woman. She was strong and caring.”
