Wu Chen: Man who killed 4 workers on Oklahoma marijuana farm demanded $300K from victims before shooting
OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA: Wu Chen, who was arrested by Miami police for allegedly killing four people in an Oklahoma marijuana grow operation, has now been charged with first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Prosecutors claimed the arrested man had demanded the $300,000 he invested in the operation before the fatal shooting on November 20. "Eyewitnesses to the murders testified that (Wu) demanded $300,000 be handed over to him by other employees of the marijuana operation, as a return of a portion of his 'investment' in the enterprise," Assistant District Attorney Austin Murrey wrote in an affidavit.
Murrey adds, “The fact that it could not be handed over on a moment's notice is what precipitated the mass murder.” The authorities responded to a hostage situation at the 10-acre Northwest Oklahoma City facility, but when they arrived three men and one woman was already dead all Chinese nationals. There was a solo survivor Yi Fei Lin, with injuries and was air-lifted to an Oklahoma City hospital from the scene too, whereas victims were identified as Quirong Lin, Chen He Chun, Chen He Qiang, and Fang Hui Lee, ABC reports.
READ MORE
Pregnant woman found dead after two abduct her and cut open her womb to steal unborn baby
(THE OKLAHOMA STATE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION/US MARSHALS SERVICE)
“The suspect held multiple people inside the garage at gunpoint,” Agent Phillip Ott, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation wrote. “The suspect demanded $300,000 within the next half hour or he was going to kill everyone in the garage." The investigators found that Chen reportedly entered the facility around 5.45 pm, while several employees were still on site. He is said to have spent a “significant amount of time” before the killing happened. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation earlier established that the homicides did not ‘appear to be a random incident.’
The accused was later arrested in Miami Beach, Florida, on November 22, when a tag reader flagged the car he was driving and was linked to an outstanding Oklahoma arrest warrant, revealed the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation in its statement. Chen is set to appear before the court on Wednesday, December 7, though, it is unclear whether he has a representative for the case.
Earlier, NBC News reported, The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs stated earlier that the department was looking into whether the grow operation's active medicinal marijuana license was legal. Attempts to contact someone at the company were futile. A commercial real estate agent holding a sale listing for the land reportedly said that she did not know anything about the owner.