By Cynthia Koons
Michael Hicks, 51, committed suicide exactly a week after police said he stormed into an orthodontist's office on Colden Street in Flushing and shot at his ex-lover, Xian Quian Cheung, a 41-year-old mother of two from Queens. Her address was not disclosed because of concern over the security of her family in the aftermath of the shooting.He was found dead in Jamaica at nearly 4 p.m. on March 17 in the vicinity of Baron Street and 116th Road, police said. A 9mm gun was found at the scene, police said.According to the Daily News, two police officers spotted Hicks walking in the neighborhood and when they approached him, he ran off toward a handball court at Baisley Pond Park.The officers lost sight of him but heard a loud gunshot sound, the News reported. They found him with a bullet wound in his temple, police said.The investigation was ongoing as of Monday.Hicks was suspected of shooting Cheung to death on March 10 in front of her daughter Risa, 12, who police said identified him at the scene. He fled the scene of the shooting in a green 1995 Saturn and was at large all week, police said.Hicks, who was from Brooklyn, spent four years in jail after being convicted of murdering his girlfriend in the 1970s. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter to receive that sentence. Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing) is collecting money for the grandmother of the two girls who were left orphaned by their mother's shooting. ks' apparent suicide “was a tremendous relief for them for several reasons,” Liu said. “Since the killer was still loose, their family was in hiding. They couldn't go home. They couldn't go to school. Now at least they can go home and go to school. They were living at an undisclosed location.”Liu was the one to inform the family of Hicks' apparent suicide. He said the family does not doubt for a moment that he was Cheung's killer.”There's no question, (Cheung's daughter) was standing right there, her mother spoke with the man before he started firing,” Liu said. “The man is not a stranger that Risa saw for the first time. The man lived with them for a couple of months.”The fact that neither Risa nor her younger sister, Vivian, 10, will have to see him again in court is also a relief.”She would have had to testify. Thankfully, now she won't have to go through that,” Liu said.He is still collecting money for the two girls' family.Those interested in contributing can make a check out to Chinese Caring Foundation and send it to Liu's office at 135-27 38th Ave., Suite 388, Flushing, NY 11354.Reach reporter Cynthia Koons by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 141.
