The blood-splattered relative charged with hacking to death five family members inside their Brooklyn apartment is an illegal alien from China, a police source told The Post on Sunday.
Ming Dong Chen, 25, entered the United States in 2004 and lived in Manhattan’s Chinatown before moving to Chicago at some point, NYPD Chief of Department Philip Banks III told reporters during an afternoon news conference in Queens.
Chen returned to New York and had been living with his alleged victims in their Sunset Park apartment for eight to ten days before Saturday night’s bloodbath, Banks said.
Chen has no known history of mental illness and no prior arrests in New York City, but cops are checking to see if he has a rap sheet anywhere else in the US, Banks said.
Cops are also working to assemble the family tree that links Chen to the victims, Banks said.
Chen was initially identified as a cousin of the four kids who were slaughtered along with their mom.