New York Daily News

BLOODY END FOR DAD OF 2 ON B’KLYN STREET

Samaritan runs to rescue, gets stabbed to death by crooks in battle after gambling den rob

- BY BRITTANY KRIEGSTEIN, WES PARNELL AND CLAYTON GUSE

A frenzied brawl sparked by a gambling den robbery in Brooklyn left a man dead after he selflessly tried to stop the fight, his family said Sunday.

Yong Zheng, 46, was returning from dinner with friends around 9:30 p.m. Friday when he stumbled upon two groups of men battling near Seventh Ave. and 57th St., police said.

“As we were walking home, we heard [the victims] yelling, ‘Robbery, robbery!’ ” said Xiu Lin, 34, a close family friend of Zheng. “Without thinking, he went up to help and that cost him his life.”

Zheng rushed into the fray and tried to defuse the fight that had spilled onto the sidewalk after a pack of crooks robbed an illegal gambling den on 58th St., police said.

“From his point of view, he saw something happening, he saw a crime, and he just went to help,” said Lin. “It’s a tragic loss.”

Video obtained by the Daily News shows Zheng dashing across the street to intervene and then stumbling back, gushing blood across the sidewalk and being supported by a woman before collapsing. He was stabbed four times in the chest.

“The blood was shooting out. We had friends trying to put pressure on it, slapping him in the face trying to keep him awake,” Lin recalled. “We just didn’t know we were going to lose him. It was just a simple dinner.”

Zheng was disturbed by the recent wave of bias attacks against the Asian community and believed he could be witnessing a hate crime when he intervened, Lin said.

Zheng’s friend Xiong Lin, who had just had dinner with Zheng, also tried to intervene in the brawl but walked away with minor wounds.

Zheng’s wife, Jin Zhao, 39, was devastated by the sudden loss of her husband. Members of Chinese neighborho­od groups raised $17,000 for the grieving widow — and delivered it to her in cash on Sunday in a somber ceremony.

“I just wish that he’s still here, that

I can get to see him again,” Zhao said as her 4-year-old son wiped tears from her cheeks. “Every time I look at my son, I think about the fact that he has no father . ... I want them all arrested, I want them to be executed.”

Zheng, who worked as a bus driver before the COVID pandemic and was the sole provider for his

wife and two children, had recently moved his family to Philadelph­ia in fear of them contractin­g COVID in the city.

A nearby restaurant owner, Jacky Zhu, 40, remembers walking out and seeing Zheng’s limp body surrounded by loved ones. “When I go outside he [Zheng] said, ‘Help, help!’ ” said Zhu. “I called the police . ... I see a lot of blood.”

The next-door neighbor at Zheng’s old New York apartment remembered the victim as a dedicated family man with the 4-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter.

“It’s terrible . ... I really knew the person. I can’t believe it ... he was a really nice guy,” said the neighbor, Isabella, 40, who gave only her first name. “I’m very sad because the children were younger . ... My son played with his son a lot. They were really good friends.”

After the violence, Lin called Zheng’s wife and children in

Philadelph­ia. His wife rushed to the city Friday night, praying on the drive up that her husband would still be alive. He died before she arrived.

“The whole way she [Zheng’s wife] was just hoping that he would be OK, knowing that he would be in bad shape but at least that he would make it,” said Lin. “She’s broken. This is something huge, to lose a partner.”

The Friday night fight broke out when the gambling den victims chased down the robbers who ripped them off. The crooks whipped out knives and started stabbing when they were confronted. They fled the scene in a white SUV after the carnage and have not been caught, police said.

Along with Zheng, a 39-year-old man was knifed twice in the arm and once in the chest and a 42-yearold man was stabbed in the lower back, police said.

They were all taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn where Zheng died, police said.

Xiong Lin was treated at the scene for a puncture wound, police said.

Zheng left his mother and sister who suffers from mental illness behind in China to pursue a better life. He was planning on returning to visit for the first time in almost 30 years before COVID.

“He came here when he was 19, trying to achieve a dream,” said Lin, who helped raise the $17,000 given to Zheng’s family.

“I want to help them raise funds for everything. He is the only provider,” she said. “They don’t have anything.”

“I want his [son] to know that his dad is a hero, not a gambler,” she added. “He [Zheng’s son] was wiping his mother’s tears. He said, ‘I’m going to make a Daddy for you.’ He doesn’t understand.”

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 ??  ?? Jin Zhao weeps as she hugs her 4-year-old son after husband Yong Zheng (inset below) was killed in knifing on Seventh Ave. and 57th St. (main photo) in Brooklyn. Bottom, Zhao (at left) is given donations from community on Sunday in Manhattan’s Chinatown.
Jin Zhao weeps as she hugs her 4-year-old son after husband Yong Zheng (inset below) was killed in knifing on Seventh Ave. and 57th St. (main photo) in Brooklyn. Bottom, Zhao (at left) is given donations from community on Sunday in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

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