Queens DA drops some charges against wife of ‘duck sauce killer’ over hoarder gun stash
Queens prosecutors have dropped the most serious charges against the wife of accused duck sauce killer Glenn Hirsch over a cluttered stash of guns found in her apartment.
Dorothy Hirsch, 62, was charged last month with eight counts of criminal possession of a weapon following her husband’s arrest for allegedly killing a Chinese food deliveryman over a bizarre grudge centered on his belief he hadn’t received enough duck sauce packets with a meal.
On the night of the killing on April 30, according to prosecutors, Glenn Hirsch was caught on security cameras running back to his car after pulling the trigger and then driving to his wife’s apartment in Briarwood, parking the vehicle and heading inside.
The NYPD searched her residence and found a cluttered closet containing eight guns stored in boxes, trash bags, ziplock bags and tinfoil, including .38 Specials, Magnums, Lugers and 9-mm. pistols.
Cops also found more than 200 rounds of ammunition, court records show. Some of the guns were loaded.
Dorothy Hirsch maintained that prosecutors were trying to pressure her into providing evidence against her husband, who lived in a separate apartment. After more than a month of legal challenges from her lawyer Mark Bederow, prosecutors Tuesday dropped the most serious charges against the wife of the accused killer.
“We are pleased that the DA has finally dismissed some of the most serious charges and that the court after considering Dorothy’s exemplary background and the merits of the case against her substantially reduced her bail. This is just the first step,” Bederow wrote in an email.
Prosecutors “know that he accessed her apartment on his own — indeed, the only reason they searched her apartment at all was because they believed he disposed of the murder weapon in her apartment (none of the seized firearms are the murder weapon).” the lawyer added.
NYPD sources previously described Glenn Hirsch as a hoarder. Detectives searching his residence found a refrigerator full of condiment packets, including duck sauce, a police source said.
Bederow said the guns were stored “in the manner of someone who hoards items”
Dorothy Hirsch, a registered nurse, faces a charge of possession of a loaded gun with the intent to use unlawfully against another. The Queens DA did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
Authorities say that Glenn Hirsch became enraged on Nov. 30 that he did not receive enough duck sauce with his take-home order from the Great Wall restaurant in Forest Hills. Repeated confrontations at the restaurant culminated in April, when Hirsch stalked and then fatally shot a well-liked deliveryman, Zhiwen Yan, 45, prosecutors say.
Hirsch, 51, was busted June 2 and released on $500,000 bail two weeks ago, alarming neighbors at his co-op building.
He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer Michael Horn has said they will try to find the real killer.
“Our position is that he’s not the guy who did this, that that person is still out there. And we’re going to try and find that person as much as anybody else,” Horn said.
