Guardian Angels Patrol Forest Hills After Worker Shooting: Report

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — The Guardian Angels patrolled Forest Hills last week in the wake of a delivery worker's killing, according to videos and a report.

In a New York Post video, Curtis Sliwa, Guardian Angels founder and GOP mayoral candidate, decried an increase in neighborhood crime at a news conference outside of Great Wall, the Forest Hills Chinese restaurant where Zhiwen Yan, 45, worked before he was gunned down mid-shift.

"In 43 years of running the Guardian Angels in New York City I never once was asked to patrol any of the streets in Forest Hills. [There was] never a need, but now we see escalating crime," Sliwa said standing alongside a group of red-beret-clad volunteer patrol members.

Forest Hills, which is usually considered a safe part of Queens, has seen some high profile killings in the past several months, including the murder of Orsolya Gaal, a local mother who was stabbed to death in her home.

In the video, Sliwa attributed this uptick in crime to neighborhood outsiders.

"You have young men coming in on a regular basis off the Jackie Robinson Parkway from Brooklyn. They're roaming the streets of Forest Hills, they're doing home break ins and robbing people at gunpoint and snatching pocket books, they're stealing cars," Sliwa said in the video.

It's unclear where the person who shot Yan lives, though a disgruntled customer is reportedly wanted for questioning in connection to the as-yet-unresolved shooting. David Bonola, Gaal's handyman and on-and-off lover who stands accused of her murder, lives in Queens.

Sliwa also came down hard against Mayor Eric Adams, who he faced in last year's mayoral election, at the news conference.

"The swagger man, the Mayor Eric Adams, he's got no plan," Sliwa said in the video.

A similar sentiment was echoed by Queens GOP State Senate candidate Stefano Forte, who also attended the news conference.

"Eric Adams told us that he was the law and order candidate, that he was going to come in and he was going to clean up our streets but it feels like he's been elected to be a celebrity instead of being the mayor," Forte said in another video.

Adams has put public safety — specifically, reducing gun violence — at the forefront of his mayoral agenda, but several months into the job most New York City voters don't think he's doing enough to tackle crime, according to a recent Quinnipiac poll.

"In the wake of April's mass shooting on the subway along with an increase in major crimes, confidence slips in the Mayor being able to reduce gun violence," Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Mary Snow, referring to the Sunset Park shooting that left more than 20 injured.

Neighbors in Forest Hills, though, were pleased to see Guardian Angels members patrolling Forest Hills, the New York Post reported.

"This is amazing and sad at the same time," one mother-of-three told the outlet. "For a neighborhood like Forest Hills to need patrol officers walking around, it’s sickening."