The 25-year-old Chinese immigrant who slaughtered his cousin's wife and four children with a meat cleaver took their lives because he was jealous of what they had, a police source said. Ming Dong Chen revealed his motive for the brutal Brooklyn murders in a remorseless confession to cops on Sunday.
"He felt they had everything and that he had nothing. They were doing well and he was struggling just to get by," the source said.
The suspect was still seething at the precinct, where he punched a police officer in the chest and threw a pair of glasses at another, according to The New York Daily News.
Chen was arraigned on murder charges on Monday, and did not enter a plea. A judge ordered him held without bail. His next court date is on Friday, where he will appear before a grand jury.
Chen slaughtered Qiao Zhen Li, 37, and her children - Linda Zhuo, 9; Amy Zhuo, 7; Kevin Zhuo, 5; and William Zhuo, 1 in their apartment in Sunset Park, Brooklyn on Saturday. The father was not home at the time of the murders.
Chen, who does not speak English and talked to cops through a Mandarin translator, was charged with five counts of first-degree and second-degree murder and with assaulting a police officer.
The mother, Li, tried to call her husband, Yi Lin Zhuo, 31, to tell him her fears about Chen's erratic behavior but could not reach him, cops said. She also called his mother in China, who called a daughter-in-law in Brooklyn. The daughter-in-law and her husband went to the apartment to check on the family.
"They bang on the door," NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks said. "At some point, he opens the door and they see that he is covered with blood."
The family members called 911 around 10:45 p.m. and detectives arrested Chen at the home.
The bodies of the mother and her 5-year-old son were found in the kitchen, which is where cops also found the weapon. The three other children were found dead in a back bedroom. All of the victims had wounds to their necks, a police source said.
Xiaowe Yang, 31, said she spoke to a cousin of Li's, who told her that the mother had tried to kick Chen out of the house.
"She told him to go home," Yang said. "The guy is very poor. He had no home. He had no place to live when he came to New York. She told him, 'You just leave my house.'"
Banks said that Chen had been "bouncing around," and had stayed with the family for eight to 10 days. He came to the United States in 2004, and his last known address was in Chicago.
Family members were devastated upon hearing the news. "He's crazy," Gao Yun, 29, who identified herself as Li's cousin, said through a translator. "He came here illegally from China. He was living with them. He's not stable." Yun said the man had a job at a restaurant until he was fired about two weeks ago.
Neighbor Amy Chang, 15, said she heard the sirens and ran out to see first responders trying to save the little boy.
"He was wearing yellow pajamas," she said. "He was bloody. They were trying to help him. But he wasn't moving . . . to kill a kid, it's the worst."
Chen, who had no criminal record in New York, stayed in many places since arriving in the U.S. and may have stayed with the family before, police said.