The wife of the gunman accused of shooting and killing a New York City Chinese food deliveryman over an ongoing dispute with the restaurant over duck sauce was arraignment on weapons charges, according to a report.
Dorothy Hirsch – the wife of the dubbed "duck sauce killer" Glenn Hirsch — pleaded not guilty to weapons-related charges during her arraignment hearing on Monday in Queens Supreme Court, The Daily Mail reported. In the aftermath of the April 30 deadly shooting of 45-year-old Zhiwen Yan, who was killed while making deliveries on his scooter for the Great Wall Restaurant in the upscale neighborhood of Forest Hills, police conducted a search warrant on Dorothy Hirsch’s apartment.
Though she reportedly lived separately from her husband, police recovered eight guns and more than 200 rounds of ammunition hidden in her apartment located on 84th Road in Queens.
Dorothy Hirsch’s attorney, Mark Bederow, who was present with her at the arraignment hearing, later told The Daily Mail that his client works as a registered nurse and has "nothing to do with the allegations against her husband and is absolutely innocent."
"The DA is fully aware that he had access to her apartment and that the guns were recovered in boxes and garbage bags, among Glenn Hirsch’s other junk in a closet used by him," Bederow said. "The DA’s own paperwork acknowledges that the other items recovered from the closet were his things. He is linked to at least one and possibly more of the firearms by forensic evidence."
"To prosecute Dorothy, a decent 62-year-old woman who has never been arrested with knowingly possessing his firearms—with the intent to use them unlawfully—is preposterous," he added, stating that his client has not lived with her estranged husband in years.
Dorothy Hirsch was arrested in early June after the police raid at her apartment.
Glenn Hirsch has been charged with the murder of the deliveryman around the same time and was later released into the custody of his brother for home confinement after posting $500,000 bail. Dorothy Hirsch’s bail was initially set at over $150,000, but it was later reduced to $30,000.
Queens prosecutors said Glenn Hirsch, who has 10 prior sealed arrests, had held an "obsession point of contention" against the restaurant since Nov. 30, 2021, when he believed he had been swindled out of enough duck sauce for his meal. The restaurant manager reported that Glenn Hirsch had been harassing him and other workers for months, including during one incident in which Glenn Hirsch reportedly vandalized the manager’s car and showed up at the restaurant with a gun in January.
For about an hour prior to the April murder, surveillance video showed the suspect circling the restaurant and then driving his car following Yan before allegedly shooting him to death.
