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A deranged man who allegedly butchered a family of five — including a one-year-old — with a meat cleaver Saturday night may have done so because the family was too wealthy.
A police source told the New York Post the man confessed to committing the crime because he was jealous of the family's lifestyle.
"The family had too much," a police source told The Post. "Their income [and] lifestyle was better than his."
The unidentified man allegedly hacked to death the 37-year-old mom Qiao Zhen Li and her four young kids, aged 1, 5, 7 and 9. The one-year-old was found at the scene decapitated, a police source told The Post.
Police officers wait outside a residence in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn where five people, including a toddler, were stabbed to death, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013, in New York. Emergency responders found three of the victims dead at the residence just before 11 p.m. Saturday. Two others were taken to Brooklyn hospitals, where they were pronounced dead. (AP)
Cops arrested the man at the scene, his bare feet soaked in blood.
"A person of interest has been taken into custody from the scene," the NYPD said in a press release. "The investigation is ongoing."
At the scene, police also reportedly seized a machete and a pair of scissors as evidence.
Medical Examiner Transport personnel remove a loaded body bag from a residence in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013 where five people, including a toddler, were stabbed to death earlier in New York. Emergency responders found three of the victims dead at the residence just before 11 p.m. Saturday. Two others were taken to Brooklyn hospitals, where they were pronounced dead. (AP)
According to witnesses, the suspect, 25, was calm as he was taken into custody by authorities. A police source told The Post he showed "no remorse."
A cousin of the dead mother described to The Post the suspect as "crazy" and recalled meeting him once.
“He’s lazy. He doesn’t work too hard,” Gao Yun, 29, said. "The guy is crazy."
UPDATE 3:29 p.m.
NEW YORK (AP) — A Chinese immigrant was arrested Sunday on five counts of murder in the deaths of his cousin's wife and her four children in a stabbing rampage in their Brooklyn home.
The New York Police Department said the suspect, 25-year-old Ming Don Chen, implicated himself in the stabbings late Saturday in the Sunset Park neighborhood. Chief of Department Phil Banks said the victims "were cut and butchered with a kitchen knife."
Two girls, 9-year-old Linda Zhuo and 7-year-old Amy Zhuo, were pronounced dead at the scene, along with the youngest child, 1-year-old William Zhuo. Their brother, 5-year-old Kevin Zhuo, and 37-year-old mother, Qiao Zhen Li, were taken to hospitals, where they also were pronounced dead.
Chen is a cousin of the children's father and had been staying at the home for the past week or so, Banks said. Chen was in custody and wasn't immediately available to comment.
Bob Madden, who lives nearby, was out walking his dog when he saw a man being escorted from the building by police. He was barefoot, wearing jeans, and "he was staring, he was expressionless," Madden said.
Yuan Gao, a cousin of the mother, said the man had recently moved to the area and had been staying with different people.
Fire department spokesman Jim Long said emergency workers responded just before 11 p.m. to a 911 call from a person stabbed at the residence in Sunset Park, a working-class neighborhood of adjoining two-story brick buildings with a large Chinese community.
Neighbor May Chan told the Daily News it was "heartbreaking" to learn of the deaths.
"I always see (the kids) running around here," Chan said. "They run around by my garage playing. They run up and down screaming."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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