Man sought in killing of 2 nephews in Arcadia is caught in Hong Kong, reports say

reporting from Beijing  —  A La Cañada Flintridge man suspected of attacking his wife and killing two of his nephews in their Arcadia home was taken into custody Saturday by authorities in Hong Kong, officials said.

Deyun Shi, 44, fled Los Angeles on Friday on a flight to Hong Kong. Local officials met him in Hong Kong when his flight landed, around 5:25 p.m. Saturday local time, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

Shi was apparently attempting to reach mainland China, which does not have an extradition agreement with the United States. Hong Kong, formerly a British colony and now a semiautonomous Chinese territory, has had an extradition treaty with the United States since 1996.

Hong Kong police declined to comment on the case Saturday night. The State Department’s 24-hour press duty officer did not return requests for comment.

Authorities took Shi into custody after he arrived aboard a Cathay Pacific flight, according to the sheriff’s department. Hong Kong station TVB said Shi was taken to the Tung Chung police station after a checkup at a local hospital.

The sheriff’s department said it would work with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and federal authorities to have Shi extradited.

The mother of the two slain boys, 15 and 16, discovered one of them in the living room of the family’s townhouse at 12:30 p.m. Friday. She called Arcadia police, who found her second son in his third-floor bedroom. Both teenagers had suffered blunt-force trauma to their upper torsos and were pronounced dead at the scene. No weapon has been found.

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L.A. County Sheriff’s homicide Lt. Eddie Hernandez said his department was working with federal authorities on the case.

Authorities said Shi was angry after learning that his wife wanted a divorce. His wife, the sister of the dead boys’ father, had requested a restraining order against Shi, and he learned of her divorce plans during a Thursday court hearing in Pasadena, authorities said.

Shi’s wife, Lin Yujing, filed for a temporary restraining order against Shi on New Year’s Eve, according to L.A. County records.

Shi, who had moved out of his family’s home in the 5200 block of Vista Miguel Drive, broke into the La Cañada Flintridge residence Thursday night and attacked his wife with a wood-cutting tool, Hernandez said. Their 15-year-old son intervened, and Shi left.

Investigators believe Shi later drove to the three-story townhouse in the 400 block of Fairview Avenue in Arcadia, where the boys lived with their parents. “We’re not sure when he got” to the house, Hernandez said.

Early Friday, the boys’ parents left home to go to the hospital to visit Shi’s wife, leaving the teenagers asleep.

When they returned at 5 a.m., they noticed nothing unusual and went to bed. The father left a few hours later, and the mother discovered one of her sons unresponsive and bleeding profusely.

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The sheriff’s department is not releasing the boys’ names. Hernandez said they were born in this country and their parents are Chinese nationals.

Although law enforcement officials have not identified the boys, a representative for the Arcadia Unified School District said they were Anthony Lin, 15, and William Lin, 16. Both boys attended Arcadia High School, a few blocks from their home.

“The loss of William and Anthony will be felt by the thousands of students, staff, friends and family that loved and knew them well in our tight-knit community,” district spokesman Ryan Foran said in a prepared statement.
Classmates and friends gathered at the Fairview Avenue home Saturday with flowers and packages.

Justin Tsou, 18, covered his face and sobbed as he placed dozen white roses on the steps of the townhome. Tsou had been friends with William, the older brother, since middle school, and the boys volunteered together at Methodist Hospital, where they checked in visitors, discharged patients and delivered flowers.

William, a junior, had hoped to study biology or chemistry in college, and competed on Arcadia’s Science Olympiad and Science Bowl teams. Both groups had hoped that William could be a captain when he was a senior, Tsou said.

Eden Hardy, a 16-year-old junior at Arcadia, lived in the same condo complex as the Lins, but rarely saw the brothers outside school, she said. In her Spanish class, William acted “kind of shy,” she said, “but you could tell he had a sense of humor.”

Anthony, a freshman, was always laughing, cracking jokes and greeting people in the hallways of the high school, friends said. During summer prep classes for the PSAT exam last year, Daniel Oh, 13, often joked around with him, playing pranks on other students between lessons.

“We made each other laugh,” Oh said. “He’d tell a joke, I’d tell a joke and we’d just laugh and laugh.”

When Oh asked about his family, Anthony usually changed the subject, he said.

Makinen reported from Beijing, Boxall and Nelson from Los Angeles.

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