Glenn Hirsch (L) and Dorothy Hirsch (R) (Photos NYPD mugshots)
Sept. 6, 2022 By Michael Dorgan
The widow of the alleged “duck sauce killer” – the man accused of fatally shooting a delivery worker in Forest Hills in April – was indicted Friday for having a cache of illegal weapons at her home.
Dorothy Hirsch, 62, who was married to the late Glenn Hirsch, 51, is being charged with criminal possession of eight illegal weapons, which were allegedly found inside her apartment in Briarwood on June 2, prosecutors say.
She and Glen Hirsch lived apart and the apartment where the illegal weapons were found is solely listed in her name, prosecutors say.
According to the charges, police found the guns after searching her apartment during an investigation into the death of 45-year-old delivery worker Zhiwen Yan who was shot dead on April 30. Yan was shot in the chest while on his scooter making deliveries for the Great Wall Chinese restaurant located at 104-37 Queens Blvd.
Glenn Hirsch — who was being prosecuted for Yan’s murder at the time he killed himself last month — parked his vehicle outside Dorothy Hirsch’s 84th Road apartment shortly after allegedly shooting Yan prompting the police search. Glenn Hirsch shot Yan over a grudge against the restaurant for shorting him on duck sauce, prosecutors say.
Police found a cache of illegal guns inside a closet in Dorothy Hirsch’s apartment during the search, including a .357 magnum revolver, a .25 caliber semi-automatic pistol, a .38 caliber revolver, a .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol, a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol and three 9mm semi-automatic pistols.
The Queens District Attorney’s Office said that Dorothy Hirsch does not have permits or registration documentation to legally possess any of the weapons found.
“These deadly guns, which were recovered in an apartment that she alone owns and occupies, pose an inherent danger to countless nearby residents and the community at large,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
Cops said previously that Hirsch had a grudge against the restaurant, having had multiple arguments with workers at the eatery. He was particularly upset that he had been shorted duck sauce while making an order late last year. Police also found a huge stash of condiments inside his fridge — many of which were filled with duck sauce.
Zhiwen Yan and his wife (L) and Yan on his bike (R) moments before being gunned down (Photos: GoFundMe and screenshot)
However, Dorothy Hirsch’s attorney has slammed the charges saying that the guns belonged to Glenn Hirsch – and that his suicide note and corroborating evidence back up those claims.
For instance, Glenn Hirsch sent a suicide note to the judge assigned to his case claiming the guns that police found belonged to him and not his wife — and that she should not face charges for the weapons.
“I want to take full responsibility for the eight guns recovered from a closet in her apartment. I acquired these firearms years ago …” Hirsch wrote in the suicide note, according to the New York Post.
Dorothy Hirsch’s attorney, Mark Bederow, said the guns were stashed in a closet filled exclusively with Glenn Hirsch’s belongings. Furthermore, Bederow said, the guns were packed in a way Glenn Hirsch stored all his possessions — in plastic and tinfoil inside large garbage bags – thereby reinforcing the claim the guns belonged to her former husband.
Bederow accused the Queens DA of withholding this evidence from the grand jury in order to secure the indictment against her.
“We believe this is one of the rare cases that the DA’s cherry-picking of evidence was so egregious and which their deliberate withholding of substantial evidence of Dorothy’s innocence was so prejudicial that it will require the dismissal of the indictment,” Bederow told the New York Post.
In the suicide note, Glenn Hirsch also declared himself innocent of slaying Zan, a married father of three, who had worked at the restaurant for more than a decade. He had immigrated to the U.S. from China about 20 years ago.
In total, Dorothy Hirsch is being charged with eight counts of criminal possession of a firearm and one count of unlawful possession of firearm ammunition
She faces 15 years in prison if convicted.
