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NYPD makes arrest in deadly stabbing in Flushing, Queens

Neighbors stunned following home invasion and killing in Flushing, Queens
Neighbors stunned following home invasion and killing in Flushing, Queens 01:49

NEW YORK -- Police say a would-be burglar broke into a Queens residence and killed a man early Sunday morning.

CBS2's Thalia Perez spoke to startled neighbors in Flushing.

"I was laying in bed because I couldn't sleep, and then I heard the female voice," Melanie Saltos said.

Saltos said she heard screaming and commotion right outside her open bedroom window on 57th Road at Lawrence Street. She said she is still trying to process that it was her next-door neighbor's husband who had been killed.

"Thinking about it, how easy he was able to enter a balcony. Thinking about how easily they could enter anyone else's property through the window and it's just really scary because I thought this was a pretty calm neighborhood," Saltos said.

Police say when they arrived just after 2 a.m. they found Yat Wong with multiple stab wounds. The 35-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene.

"It's wild to think right next door you know something like this happened," neighbor Dennis Krolikowski said.

Police said 35-year-old Yang Zhang was nabbed by arriving officers as he was trying to climb down from a balcony.

"It just has me a little startled. It could have been us. It could have been anybody," a neighbor said.

Crime scene tape surrounded the four-story building hours after it all happened while investigators were seen leaving and entering the residence. Richard Hau said he lives on the second floor.

"I couldn't go anywhere today. I told them and then they say in and out they have to check me, like ID me," Hau said.

It's still unclear what the motive was and whether there was a relationship between the suspect and the victim. Zhang is facing multiple charges, including murder in the second degree, burglary, and criminal possession of a weapon.

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