Family being ‘violently' stalked finds knife, note on doorstep in CA, feds say

Miami Herald

4 days ago

A family receiving threatening calls from a person warning them about a large debt found a menacing note and a knife outside their Southern California home, according to the FBI.
The knife had been stabbed into the family's doormat and was left 'upright' on their doorstep, an affidavit written by an FBI special agent investigating the threats says.
One family member, described as 'victim 1,' was the first to find the knife and letter outside her Yorba Linda residence in Orange County in March 2024, about a week after the FBI said the threatening calls began.
The handwritten letter taped to her front door was in Mandarin Chinese, according to the filing, and had the 'same message' the mysterious caller had relayed to the family over the phone.
The message translated by the FBI was included in affidavit and said:
'Your man has owed us a 150,000 debt for a long time. Now I am informing you that if you still don't pay the money, your family will not be safe.'
The family continued to receive more menacing calls and text messages about this supposed debt, according to the FBI. 'Both victims reported they could not think of anyone to whom they owed money,' the affidavit says.
Then, on April 4, 2024, someone with a gun shot at their home six times, when one of the family members was in the residence.
Now, two San Bernardino County men are accused of 'violently' stalking the family, the FBI said in a June 30 news release.
Men arrested on stalking charges
According to the affidavit, the FBI found 'significant' evidence linking Xiang Li, 42, of Chino Hills and Bowen Zhou, 33, of Upland, to what the agency is calling a targeted 'intimidation campaign' against the family.
Attorney information for Li and Zhou was not immediately available.
Li, also known as 'Lilinbo,' and Zhou, who also goes by 'Roger Zhou,' were arrested in mid-June on federal stalking charges, the FBI said.
The evidence against them includes footage captured by the family's home security cameras, cell phone data and witness interviews, according to the FBI agent who investigated them.
The agent, who specializes in cases involving counterintelligence as well as aircraft and aerospace technology transfers, wrote in the affidavit that evidence ties Zhou to the phone used to call the family and that Li was tied to a phone used to text them.
During one of the calls answered by a family member described as 'victim 2' — one day after the knife and letter was left at the family's home — the caller refused to reveal his identity when the man asked who he was, according to the affidavit.
The man told the caller that if 'he owed money, he needed to know how to pay it,' the filing says.
In response, the caller said, according to the affidavit, that: 'You should know. I know where your family lives, and we have a lot of gangsters in the L.A area.'
After the April 2024 shooting at the family's home, 'victim 2' reported to investigators that a business associate wanted to hurt his family, according to the filing.
The associate, identified only as 'L.B.,' 'was going to spend $20,000 to take care of Victim 2,' the man said, according to the FBI agent.
Following this tip, on April 15, 2024, Li was paid $20,000, his bank records revealed, according to the affidavit.
The payment was unusually large compared to prior payments in Li's account, the FBI agent wrote in the filing.
FBI executes search warrants
When the FBI carried out search warrants at Li and Zhou's homes on June 3, the agency said ammunition matching the 'caliber of the ammunition used during' the April 2024 shooting at the family's home were seized from Li's residence.
A firearm magazine with 16 rounds of such ammo was found in a bookshelf in Li's bedroom, according to the affidavit supporting a criminal complaint filed in federal court on June 17.
The complaint was shared with McClatchy News by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.
At Zhou's home, the FBI said a 'phone that was used to make the threatening calls and to contact Li around the time of the stalking incidents' was seized.
Agents also found a 9mm Smith & Wesson pistol in his bathroom, inside the tank of his toilet, according to the affidavit, which suggests the weapon was possibly used during the shooting incident.
The affidavit says that during an FBI interview, 'Zhou admitted he placed the pistol in the toilet earlier that morning' and accused Li of asking him to store it.
Li denied stalking the family in his interview, according to the filing.
But Zhou said Li had visited the family's home two times and as Zhou waited at a nearby plaza for 'Li to return' during both occasions, the affidavit says.
He also revealed 'his job was to take the cover off the license plate of the car Li was driving' and that 'he believed that Li was trying to recover money from someone who owed Li money,' according to the FBI agent.
Li and Zhou are in federal custody after they had their initial court appearances, the FBI said in the release.
If both men are convicted of stalking, they would face up to five years in prison.