The death of a 25-year-old autistic man in Queens has been ruled a homicide as investigators focus on his mother, who leaped from a highway hours after the killing in an apparent suicide attempt, sources said.
Bryan Wong, who was nonverbal, was discovered by his father with slit wrists and a gash to his neck inside the family’s Woodside apartment on Wednesday morning, law enforcement sources said. The grisly scene unfolded on a pull-out couch in the three-story walk-up on 59th Street near Laurel Hill Boulevard around 8 a.m., according to police.
At least three knives were recovered from the home, sources said. The victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
The discovery came roughly four hours after Bryan Wong’s mother, Suk Kuen Wong, 61, was found lying in the street beneath the Van Wyck Expressway with a fractured pelvis and femur, law enforcement sources said. Her disabled gray Hyundai was found abandoned on the north side of the busy roadway above.
The injured woman was hospitalized and listed in stable condition. Police have not identified her as a suspect, but are actively investigating whether she may have been involved in her son’s death. No arrests have been made.
Neighbors described the Wong family as friendly and quiet, and expressed shock at the violence that invaded their community.
“They’re very quite nice family,” one local resident said.
“I never hear anything wrong with them before. It is very sad because I’ve been living in this area for almost 31 years. I have seen this boy growing up. So, he was like, to me, as a son.”
The neighbor continued, “When you living in together in one area, we feel like it’s a family, together, community, there. I don’t expect that it could happen in an area like that. To us, it’s very sad.”
The case has left the tight-knit Woodside community reeling as police continue their investigation without naming a suspect. The timeline of events — the mother’s early morning leap from the expressway followed by the father’s discovery of their son’s body hours later — has raised pointed questions about what transpired inside the family home.
Bryan Wong’s disabilities added another layer of vulnerability to a case that has already unsettled neighbors who watched him grow up over three decades. His nonverbal condition and autism meant he relied entirely on his caregivers, making the circumstances of his violent death particularly disturbing to those who knew the family.
Suk Kuen Wong remains hospitalized as detectives piece together the events that led to her son’s slashing death and her own apparent suicide attempt on the Van Wyck Expressway. Police have not indicated when charges might be filed or if additional family members are being questioned.