A 20-year family feud that started over tossed garbage in a small Chinese village came to a bloody climax in Brooklyn — when a killer crossed paths with his rival’s father and shot the man to death, authorities said.
Wu Long Chen, 45, a Chinese military veteran, recognized the patriarch of the family he was seeking vengeance against at a wedding and then followed him out before allegedly shooting him in the head and leaving him to die on the floor of a Popeye’s restaurant.
“I’m going to die; I’m going to die,” Yingguan Chen, 68, said over and over in Mandarin as he collapsed in the Sunset Park fried-chicken joint on Dec. 7.
Wu Long’s desire for vengeance had been simmering since a dispute over garbage between him and Chen’s son two decades ago in their Chinese village.
“The killer and my father were neighbors in China about 20 years ago,” Chen’s daughter Vicki told The Post. “They got into arguments because he would throw trash into my father’s yard.”
Yingguan Chen had already moved out of the country and to America when the feud started.
“My father had no idea,” Chen’s son Gary said.
The tensions escalated into a physical altercation, and Chinese authorities had to get involved.
“The killer brought his many brothers over and tried to intimidate our family,” Gary said. “The killer was pushing our mother around and hurt her arm. It got violent and the Chinese government brought the police.”
The government tried to settle the feud by making each family pay what amounted to a $1,000 fine.
But the skirmish was apparently never settled for Wu Long, who allegedly snapped last month at a mutual friend’s Brooklyn wedding.
“It’s surprising that this man could hold a grudge and make my father a target,” Gary Chen said. “It’s a complete shock.”
Police, too, were stunned by the coldblooded killing.
“The victim was completely innocent,” a law-enforcement source said. “This was a way for him to exact his revenge.”
Wu Long Chen tried to flee to Mexico but was busted by immigration officers in Laredo, Texas, and transported back to Brooklyn to face murder and weapons charges.