The widow of suspected Queens “duck sauce killer” Glenn Hirsh has been indicted on charges that she stashed weapons for the zany hoarder accused of fatally shooting a popular food deliveryman.
Despite her pleas of innocence, and beyond-the-grave assurances from Hirsch’s suicide note that she knew nothing about the guns, prosecutors will move forward with charges against Dorothy Hirsch for the cache of weapons and ammunition found in her Briarwood apartment.
“These deadly guns, which were recovered in an apartment that she alone owns and occupies, pose an inherent danger to countless nearby residents and the community at large.” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz. “My Office will continue its relentless pursuit of illegal firearms that put Queens residents in harm’s way.”
Dorothy Hirsch, 62, and her lawyer, Mark Bederow, have argued that she knew nothing of the weapons stashed in her apartment, and her husband said as much in a rambling suicide note he wrote before killing himself on Aug. 5. He was awaiting trial on charges that he murdered deliveryman Zhiwen Yan, 45, in what authorities said was a dispute over a restaurant condiment.
Bederow had appealed to prosecutors to introduce the suicide note as evidence to the grand jury.
Hirsch and his wife lived apart.
“What they’re doing to her is unfathomable,” Bederow said. “He has admitted that they were his guns. There is substantial evidence to corroborate that, and none of it was presented to the grand jury.”
Bederow said the guns were stored in black, plastic trash bags in a closet Glenn Hirsch used exclusively. He said the murder suspect had his own key to his wife’s apartment, and hid the firearms there without her knowledge.
Prosecutors said eight illegal weapons, six of them semi-automatic, as well as hundreds of rounds of ammunition were found inside the widow’s home. Authorities said Glenn Hirsch was seen parking in front of the 84th Road residence immediately following the murder.
Dorothy Hirsch was indicted on nine counts of criminal possession of a weapon, eight counts of criminal possession of a firearm and one count of unlawful possession of firearm ammunition, and was awaiting arraignment on the charges in Queens Supreme Court. She faces 15 years in prison, if convicted.
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, Yan, prosecutors say.
Glenn Hirsch, 51, was arrested June 2 and released on $500,000 bail before he took his life.
