Fleeing 'dinosaur' reaches end of the road in HK
A MAN accused of being the gangster known as 'Dinosaur', one of the most wanted men in New York, has been arrested in Hong Kong after more than three years working as a waiter.
Chu Wai-ip, 25, was accused of killing a passerby during a shoot-out between Ghost Shadows gang members at the intersection of Mulberry and Bayard streets in New York's Chinatown on July 4, 1991.
Filipino American Rhona Lentin, 26, was hit in the head by a stray bullet while she was sitting in the front seat of a car and died the next day in St Vincent's Hospital.
Police later found two other spent bullets on the streets after the shooting.
A Chinatown detective said Chu was interviewed after the incident but released without charge after conflicting statements from rival gang members.
'We didn't have enough evidence [to arrest him] until a year later,' the detective said.
By the time the police found a witness who would testify against Chu, a member of the Mott Street faction of the Ghost Shadows, he had fled to the territory.
Both the New York Police Department and the FBI had been trying to find the alleged gunman since then and eventually managed to locate him with help from Hong Kong police.
'He was working as a waiter and living in a run down apartment,' the detective said.
Chu appeared in court in Hong Kong on December 5 on a holding charge after being detained while working in a Wan Chai restaurant. Police sources in New York believe Chu will fight the extradition and they do not know when he will be returned to the city.
