By Madina Toure
By Madina Toure
An Oakland Gardens man who is suspected of hiring another man to attack his ex-girlfriend was charged with the slashing of a 16-year-old Chinese female student—an unintended victim—in Whitestone, detectives and the commanding officer of the 109th Precinct said Thursday afternoon.
The man, identified by police as Wilson Lai, 25, was arrested and faces multiple counts of rape, assault, criminal sex act, criminal mischief, conspiracy, acting in a manner injurious to a child, harassment and criminal possession of a weapon, officials said.
He was led out of the precinct during a perp walk a little before 2 p.m.
On Dec. 16, 2015, an unknown male suspect approached the victim, JiaJia Liamg, at the intersection of 147th Street and 13th Avenue and slashed her with a box cutter. She suffered wounds on her left cheek and throat. Police said the suspect fled on foot on 13th Avenue.
She was transported to Long Island Jewish Medical Center and required more than 200 stitches.
At a news conference at the precinct’s headquarters in downtown Flushing, Lt. Timothy Thompson of the 109th Precinct said Lai had a sexual relationship with his intended victim, whose age he declined to disclose, and that jealousy motivated him to hire a Pennsylvania man for the crime. She lived in the same house as JiaJia, according to reports.
He was charged with rape due to the fact that he had the relationship with the girl when she was about 14 years old, Thompson said.
The two men were arrested within 30 minutes of each other, the lieutenant said. The Pennsylvania man is currently in custody in Pennsylvania and will be extradited to New York City, he said.
“It happened to go down that way,” he said. “We were trying to make it happen that way. They were arrested within a half hour of each other.”
Deputy Inspector Judith Harrison, the precinct’s new commanding officer, praised the work done to catch the suspects.
“It was an extensive investigation, it was a lot of leg work that went into bringing these people to justice and they stayed the course with it,” Harrison said.
State Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing), who helped set up a special fund for the slashing victim with the law firm of Gary Park to cover expenses such as traveling costs and surgery, said he was happy the NYPD consistently pursued leads. The fund raised at least $10,000.
The assemblyman said JiaJia’s mother is back in China and that the family is aware the suspects had been arrested.
JiaJia has new housing now and is back at school and the family intends to come out with a response in the near future, he said.
“I’m very grateful and thankful that the NYPD, particularly the 109th, has persistently pursued this case over the last few months,” Kim said. “Many of us have questions about the status, but I think today proves in all this time they were keeping up with the investigations, following every lead.”
(Correction: the target of the attack was not the victim’s sister)
