A 43-year-old man in the United States has been arrested for allegedly pointing a gun at a 6-year-old boy over Halloween candy. According to NBC News, the incident occurred on Saturday in New York. Michael Yifan Wen 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 when a mother drove her daughter, two sons, and a nephew to a nearby residence to drop off a goody bag. 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. However, 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 to the porch to get the bag full of candy.
This is when the man opened the door and pointed a handgun at the boy's head, the outlet reported. The Nassau County Police Department were immediately notified of the incident and the 43-year-old suspect was arrested.
Mr Wen's attorney, however, said that his client is presumed innocent. "These are just allegations," the lawyer said. He also asked the public to refrain from jumping to conclusions "before the facts come out".
According to ABC News, the investigation into the incident is currently ongoing.
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Meanwhile, this comes amid a time when US is reeling under the uncontrolled and widespread use of guns across the country which has resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians over the years. The country has recorded over 500 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a non-governmental organization that defines a mass shooting as four or more people wounded or killed.
Notably, the recent shooting in Maine left 18 dead. This attack was the deadliest mass shooting in 2023 so far, according to the GVA's data.
