Woman Stabs NYC Lawyer To Death For Refusing To Take Up Her Case

A woman from New York City has been arrested for allegedly stabbing a lawyer who refused to take up her case.

Xiaoning Zhang, 25, entered the office of Jinjin (Jim) Li on Monday morning and stabbed him in the body and neck. Both were Chinese nationals.

The 66-year-old immigration lawyer, whose office was located in Flushing, Queens, was rushed to the New York Presbyterian-Booth Memorial Hospital. He was pronounced dead at the hospital, the New York Post reported.

Wayne Zhu, Li's friend who is also a lawyer, told reporters that Zhang visited the victim's office last week as well and was furious that he wouldn't take up her case. It was not clear Zhang wanted Li's help in what kind of case.

"He didn't want to take her case. There was no reason to kill him. She came here last Friday and made a scene. The office called the police but she ran away," Zhu told the NY Daily News. "That probably triggered her anger. Today she came with a knife, with the intent to kill him."

Su Xu, a receptionist at Li's office, heard two office workers saying, "Call 911! Call 911!" after the lawyer was attacked.

"I went to help them. The lawyer's white shirt was covered in blood. He was unconscious," Xu told the outlet. "There was so much blood. Too much blood. When she came in, the woman was so quiet, and then she attacked the lawyer. Last week she was here and she struck him, she attacked him. We warned them not to let this woman into the office."

Li had urged authorities not to press charges against the woman after the Friday incident. "He even told the police not to arrest her. 'She is young. Let her have a future.' He was a great man," Zhu said.

When Li was a graduate law student, he was part of the 1989 student democracy movement at Tiananmen Square and spent almost two years in jail. He left the country and sought asylum in the U.S. in 1993.

"I can't believe it. She not only destroyed his life, but the hope of our community," Zhu told the outlet. "He wanted to realize democracy in China. He will never realize that dream."

"In 1989 he was a leader in Tiananmen Square. We don't know how to deal with his loss," recalled Ai Wang, another friend of Li.

The victim's friends speculate that the attacker might be mentally unstable, which was why the lawyer did not take up her case.

Zhang reportedly came to the U.S. last year on an F-1 student visa to go to school in Los Angeles. "But she didn't attend," Chuang Chuang Chen, the CEO of the China Democracy Party, said. "She came straight here. She came directly and applied for asylum. She claimed she was raped by police in Beijing who sent her to a mental facility."

The woman is facing charges of murder and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with Li's death.