A Hoboken man was arrested for sending racially charged emails and making a threatening phone call to a Bayonne book store, police said.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
Qiuewn Zheng, 59, of Hoboken, was charged with bias intimidation, cyber-harassment, and making terroristic threats, according to Police Capt. Eric Amato.
Zheng was taken into custody at 11 a.m. this morning from the area of The Little Boho Bookshop, located at 164A Broadway. and charged for an incident that occurred on Friday.
On Friday around 11:12 a.m., officers responded to book store on a report of cyber-harassment.
Upon arrival, officers met with the store owner who reported that on this date, she had received two racially charged emails to her business email account and a threatening phone call.
Deeming this an act of bias intimidation, the Bayonne Police Department immediately launched an investigation, increased patrol in the area of the book shop, and implemented a fixed post through the Bayonne Police Community Oriented Policing Unit.
Then, on Saturday around 10:50 a.m., while several officers and a detective were on post at the bookshop, they were approached by an unknown man, later identified as Zheng.
Zheng began speaking with unintelligible phrases and uttering the same words that were observed in the emails sent to the book shop the day prior. An on-scene investigation immediately ensued and led to Zheng being identified as actor involved the day prior.
“The Bayonne Police Department will not tolerate divisive acts such as this. Incidents of bias intimidation will be investigated to their logical conclusions and those responsible will be held accountable,” Police Chief Robert Geisler said in a statement.
“I would like to commend the officers assigned to the area of The Little Boho Bookshop on
Saturday for taking swift action and taking this offender into custody before this incident could escalate further.”
A separate incident of harassment possibly involving Zheng is actively underway, where
numerous phone calls to the Bayonne Police Telecommunication Center at all hours of the day have continued since October 18th, Amato said.
