A New York man allegedly pointed a gun at the head of a 6-year-old boy who had dropped off a Halloween goody bag at the wrong home and went to retrieve it, police said.
Michael Yifan Wen, 43, of Manhasset, was arrested and charged with menacing and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child, Nassau County police said in a statement.
The incident began Saturday when a mother drove her daughter, two sons and a nephew to the home on Rockcrest Road. Her 10-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son rang the doorbell and dropped off a Halloween goody bag on the porch for the girl's friend, police said.
When the children returned to the car, the girl told her mother the address may have been incorrect, so they drove back, and the boy went up to the porch to get the bag full of candy, police said.
That's when the man opened the door and pointed a handgun at the boy's head, they said.
Police later determined it had been the wrong address.
Wen's attorney, Roger Blank, said Tuesday that his client is presumed innocent.
"These are just allegations," he said. Blank asked the public to refrain from jumping to conclusions "before the facts come out."
Other instances of people mistakenly showing up at the wrong home have turned deadly this year:
- On April 13, an 84-year-old Missouri man fatally shot a Black teenager who rang his doorbell after he went to the wrong address.
- Two days later, a 20-year-old New York woman was fatally shot in an SUV after friends she was with pulled into the wrong driveway in Hebron while they were looking for a party.
- In August, a 20-year-old University of South Carolina student was fatally shot after having tried to enter the wrong home.