Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the box-cutter slashing of a Chinese exchange student as she walked to school six months ago in Queens, authorities said Thursday.
The suspects were identified as 25-year-old Wilson Lai, of Oakland Gardens in Queens, and Devon Berkley, 36, of Allentown.
Lai had planned to attack a girl with whom he had a one-year sexual relationship beginning in June 2013, when she was 14 years old, prosecutors said. He allegedly conspired with 36-year-old Devon Berkley of Allentown, Pennsylvania last December to attack the girl.
Berkely ended up slashing another girl who happened to be the same age and lived in the same house as the intended target, according to prosecutors. Wearing a surgical mask and gloves, he allegedly slashed her twice in the face.
The victim was hospitalized and now has two scars that run up the left side of her face, prosecutors said.
Lai faces additional charges of rape and criminal sex act. He appeared in Queens Supreme Court Tuesday and ordered held without bail until his arraignment next Tuesday. Berkley was being held in Allentown pending an extradition hearing.
Surveillance video taken on Dec. 16 showed the man jogging behind the victim as she walks on the sidewalk on 13th Street near 147th Street. Both the man and victim move out of the frame for a moment, and then the video shows the suspect fleeing in the other direction.
Local
A few weeks later, on Jan. 4, Lai and two other men allegedly vandalized a vehicle belonging to his intended target's family, prosecutors said. He left a note stating the wrong girl was attacked and the intended target was next.
Law enforcement sources told NBC 4 New York at the time the note said "you [expletive] with the wrong person" and that it was going to be "an exciting year" for her, according to the sources.
The author of the letter also apologized to the girl he attacked, saying she was not the target.
The victim, a student at the Whitestone Academy school, had been in the United States for eight months, police said.
If convicted, Berkley faces up to 25 years in prison and Lai faces up to 32 years in prison, the district attorney said.
A spokesperson for Brown said they had no information on whether Lai and Berkley had obtained lawyers who could comment on the charges.
