'My son was scared for his life.' Mom says gun was pointed at 6-year-old who left candy on wrong doorstep

According to court documents, the mom said she was in her vehicle at her daughter’s friend's house when her daughter and son walked up the path of the home to the front step, rang the bell and left a bag full of candy for Halloween on the porch.

Carmen Grant and Cecilia Dowd

Oct 29, 2023, 4:04 PM

Updated 418 days ago

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“My son was scared for his life.” That’s what a mom told authorities after a man allegedly put a gun to her 6-year-old boy’s head.
As News 12 reported, it happened Saturday night on Rockcrest Road in Manhasset.
According to court documents, the mom said she was in her vehicle at her daughter’s friend's house when her daughter and son walked up the path of the home to the front step, rang the bell and left a bag full of candy for Halloween on the porch.
She said they left in the car, but a little while later her daughter said she thought they had brought the candy to the wrong house.
They went back to the house and the woman said she had her son run back up the path to grab the goodie bag. That’s when she said a man came out of the house and raised a black handgun to her son’s head. She said she yelled “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”
Michael Yifan Wen was arrested and charged with menacing and endangering the welfare of a child.
According to court documents, he made an oral statement saying, “Today I just wanted to scare them.”
Wen’s attorney William X. Zou said Wen, his wife and three kids had been on edge because there were “a couple” of incidents where the doors to the house “were banged at midnight and evening.”
Zou said on the night before the incident, “ two strangers knocked on his door and ran away.
His three kids were terrified and worried that somebody tried to break their door and break in.”
He said in those instances, no candy was left, and it was not “ghosting.”
Officials say Wen's gun license has been suspended.