An angry customer who allegedly killed a Chinese food delivery associate for not bringing enough duck sauce was in the habit of hoarding the condiment and had stacked his fridge with it, said police.
Glenn Hirsch, 51, who stays in the Briarwood neighbourhood, was arrested last week after being charged for fatally shooting Zhiwen Yan, who worked at the Great Wall restaurant in New York’s Queens Boulevard neighbourhood on 30 April.
Mr Hirsch was also charged with possession of a firearm.
The murder occurred after a long-running dispute between the restaurant and Mr Hirsch.
In November last year, Mr Hirsch had received an order that he said did not have enough duck sauce.
But police searching Mr Hirsch’s home for weapons on Tuesday claimed they found his fridge was fully stacked with packets of the condiment, reported the New York Post, quoting a source.
“When they were doing their search of the place for the weapons, they looked in the refrigerator, and there were all of these condiments,” the unnamed official told the Post.
“His whole fridge was filled with duck sauce.”
“It was not just duck sauce. It was condiments, duck sauce, ketchup... It was weird. He’s a hoarder,” the source further said.
The beef over the duck sauce had led the accused to allegedly threaten the restuarant owner and delivery person several times in the five months leading up to the murder.
Mr Hirsch had also allegedly vandalised the car of restaurant owner Ken Yang in December and terrorised staff with a gun, according to the Post.
He was also spotted on surveillance footage circling the restaurant in his car, said the report. He then allegedly followed Yan before shooting him in the Forest Hills neighbourhood.
Yan, a 45-year-old father, is survived by his wife and three children. His wife said she has been living with fear since the shooting, knowing that her husband’s killer was still out there, CBS2 reported.
“I feel scared that if we do not catch this criminal, if he murders someone again. I really don’t want to see another family go through the same kind of pain,” Eva Zhao said.
