Chenghai Xue Charged With Killing Nephew Outside Medford Courthouse
SOMERVILLE (CBS) – Chenghai Xue, the man charged with killing his nephew in a courthouse parking lot, will be arraigned Friday for murder.
According to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan, Xue was at the Cambridge District Courthouse in Medford Thursday afternoon to get an extension of a restraining order against his 23-year-old nephew.
But the judge denied his request, Ryan said, and Xue got into his car and ran down his nephew in the parking lot, pinning him.
"Mr. Xue exited the car with a handgun, leaned over the nephew and shot him multiple times," Ryan said.
The nephew, who has not been identified, died immediately.
Xue's attorney, William Barabino, said he heard the gunshots and ran outside and pinned his client down.
"I just very gently placed a knee on him and sort of rubbed his back," Barabino said. "He was the type of guy you want working next to you. You know what I mean? So as a result, you're sitting there going saying, 'Wow, wow, I didn't expect that.'"
Barabino said Xue, 44, had taken in his nephew in from China several years ago and then over the last few years that relationship soured.
More information is expected to be released at Xue's arraignment Friday in Somerville District Court.
"People are always at the courthouse for incidents that are upsetting in some way," Ryan said. "It's already a place that's a very heightened, tension situation. To have something like this unfolding particularly at the end of the day as people were leaving the courthouse -- employees were leaving, other things were finishing -- is extremely concerning."
