2 Charged In Slashing Attack Against Teen Exchange Student In Queens

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Two people were charged Friday in connection with the December slashing of a Chinese exchange student in Queens, police said.

The NYPD arrested Wilson Lai, 25, on assault and other charges, and Devon Berkley, 36, was arrested in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Student JiaJia Liang was slashed in the face by a man with a box cutter as she walked to school in broad daylight on Dec. 16. The 16-year-old needed more than 200 stitches to close slashes on her face and neck that were sustained in the near 147th Street and 13th Avenue in Whitestone.

Surveillance video showed a suspect wearing a surgical mask and gloves jogging up behind the teen as she walked on the sidewalk.

Police said Lai was having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl and had ordered an attack on her, which Berkley allegedly was to carry out. But Berkley attacked the wrong person, police alleged.

Lai also faces rape and criminal sex act charges.

The victim had been in the U.S. for eight months at the time of the attack.

After the incident, Liang received a letter indicating that she was not the intended target. The writer of the letter apologized, and promised that the correct teen would soon have her "beautiful face" carved up.

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