Cop shot at armed man

[Tadakatsu Honda]

Singapore
Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Jan 7, 2010

Cop shot at armed man

By Elena Chong

Staff Sergeant Azli Othman told a coroner's court on Thursday that he shot a suspect at Outram MRT station as his life was in imminent danger. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW

A POLICE officer told a coroner's court on Thursday that he shot a suspect at Outram MRT station as his life was in imminent danger. Staff Sergeant Azli Othman, 30, attached to Bukit Merah East Neighbourhood Police Centre, testified that Lim Bok Song, 43, charged at him with a knife in his right hand and ignored his warnings to stop. He had earlier called out to Lim and signalled to him to move aside at the North-East Line MRT platform on March 6, 2008. Suddenly, Lim slipped his right hand into his sling bag. Staff Sgt Azli then placed his right hand on his service revolver in case the culprit was taking out a weapon. When the officer saw Lim whip out a knife, he drew out his service revolver and pointed at him, shouting at him to stop. But Lim ignored him and dashed towards the officer who retreated backwards and fired a shot. The court heard that Staff Sgt Azli and then Corporal Tan Lye Ann, now 22, had responded to a message to look out for the suspect who had earlier stabbed an odd-job worker at Jalan Kukoh hawker centre off Chin Swee Road. The inquiry into the deaths of Lim and Mr Tan Ah Chong, 52, continues. <!-- by line --> <!-- end by line --> <!-- end left side bar --> <!-- story content : start -->

 

[postnew]

Outram Park MRT station <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<**>>>>>>>>>PHOTO: ALBERTO TAPHANEL

Staff Sgt Azli told the court that he did not use his taser gun instead, as stunning a subject might not be enough in a life and death situation.
Lim died on the spot from the gunshot, fired from a few metres away.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------

HE had called his mother using his handphone not long after stabbing a man to death.
Lim Bock Song, 43, blurted out what he had done.
But before the shocked woman could ask him any questions, he hung up.
The call stunned Lim's 60-year-old mother so much that it took her more than an hour to compose herself and call her youngest son back.
But there was no answer, for he was dead by then.
A police officer had shot him in the chest on the North-East Line platform of OutramMRT Station at 3.25pm on Thursday.
According to the police, Lim, who was unemployed, had charged aggressively at the police officer with a knife when he was approached by the latter and another police officer. The shot was fired at close range and Lim was pronounced dead at 3.50pm.
Lim was believed to have stabbed odd-job worker Tan Ah Chang, 52, at the Jalan Kukoh hawker centre at 2.45pm that day.
Yesterday, the families of both men were at the mortuary to identify their bodies.
Both families declined to be interviewed, but a family friend of Lim's later told The New Paper that his family was still trying to come to terms with his death.
He said: 'His mother was watching the evening news and that was when she realised her son was dead. She recognised the shirt he was wearing.'
He said the police couldn't contact Lim's family earlier as he did not live with them.
He added that Lim had been treated at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) for five years. In May last year, he moved in with two friends to a one-room Jalan Kukoh flat.
The family friend said Lim was 'depressed' after his divorce. It happened when his son, now in Secondary 1, was in kindergarten.
The friend said: 'Bock Song thought too much about his son. Recently, he tried to get access to him. But during Chinese New Year, his son called and said he was doing fine without his father.
'I've known him (Lim) for many years and I think he was very affected by that.'
The family friend said Lim had been on medication for depression.
He said Lim's mother used to call her son regularly as she 'still loved him', but the other members of the family were not in contact with him.

 

[postnew]

STABBED his drinking buddy to death, fled the scene - and was shot dead half an hour later.
The 43-year-old was shot by a policeman in an afternoon drama that unfolded right in front of commuters on a train platform at the Outram MRT station.
The man, as yet unidentified except by his nickname ‘Botak’, had lunged at two policemen with a knife.
The single gunshot at about 3.25pm drew screams from several commuters. Some tried to get away by running up the escalators and stairs.
Eyewitnesses told The Straits Times that the man clutched at his chest, staggered and fell face-down.
Argentinian tourist Alberto Taphanel, 47, said: ‘There wasn’t much blood. It was a clean shot and he went down with a long-drawn groan.’
The two policemen moved towards the body, revolvers still drawn, and one kicked the knife away.
The last time police here drew their weapons and fired on a suspect was in 2002, when a motorcycle thief charged at four officers with a knife. The man survived.
Train rides continued as usual although the police cordoned off a section of the station near where the body lay for a couple of hours.
Curious commuters who came through the station thought at first that the policemen and detectives gathered there were taking part in a drill.

They did not know that five minutes away, another team of officers was swarming a hawker centre at Block 1, Jalan Kukoh.
Amid the overturned beer mugs and bloodied tables lay the body of 52-year-old Tan Ah Chang.
The odd-job worker, nicknamed ‘Eh Gao’ (or mute in Hokkien) by his friends, had been stabbed in the stomach. His killer left behind a knife sheath.

Mr Tan had been drinking beer since about 10am, with three other men and a woman.
One of the men, electrician Eric Leong, said that the hawker centre was their usual watering hole.
Mr Leong left the group early to take a nap near the hawker centre’s toilet.
He was roused from sleep by the screams of the woman in the group.
He told The Straits Times in Hokkien: ‘When I got to the table, all I saw was my good friend lying there.’

Tan Ah Chang

He was told that the group had been joined by a man who was known to them, despite his full head of hair, as Botak.
Based on descriptions provided by witnesses, police officers spotted Botak, in a white T-shirt and black pants, at the train station platform. He was carrying a black haversack.
When they approached him, he took the knife out of the bag and charged at them. That was when one of the officers drew his revolver.
Superintendent Lau Peet Meng, the commander of Central Police Division, said his officer drew his weapon as the man was advancing towards them, knife in hand, ‘in a threatening manner and at close proximity’.
A police spokesman said that the man was within 3m of the officers when he was shot.
The bullet did not exit the body and did not ricochet within the station.
Supt Lau said: ‘In the circumstances, considering that he was supposed to have just killed another man, the officer had no choice but to open fire.’

 

[jw5]

I hope this inquiry does not take too long.
In my opinion, they only need to ask 3 questions:
1. Did the man kill someone?
2. Did he take out a knife from his bag when the policeman confronted him?
3. Did he charge at the policeman with the knife?
If the answer to all 3 questions is "yes", then the answer to the inquiry is clear.
Condolences to the families of the 2 dead men.

 

[Zhou Yü]

CCTV caught MRT shooting

Singapore
Home > Breaking News > Singapore > Story
Jan 8, 2010

CCTV caught MRT shooting

<!-- by line --> <!-- end by line -->

Officers from the Special Operations Command and others round the wounded Lim Bock Song. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW

<!-- story content : start --> THE shooting incident at Outram Park MRT Station captured by closed-circuit television cameras was shown at a joint coroner's inquest into the deaths of two men on Friday. The CCTV footages showed Lim Bock Song, 43, a suspect who had earlier fatally stabbed an odd-job worker at Jalan Kukoh hawker centre, walking up to a directory board between Platform A and B of the station at about 3.15pm on March 6, 2008. The unemployed man was then seen talking to a young man in bermudas, asking for help. As Lim and the unknown commuter were looking at the board, Staff Sergeant Azli Othman and Special Constable Corporal Tan Lye Ann, came along.
The duo had been directed to look for Lim, who left Jalan Kukoh after Mr Tan Ah Chang, 52, had been stabbed to death, and made his way to Chinatown MRT station where he took several train rides until he finally alighted at Outram Park MRT Station.

The CCTV showed Staff Sgt Azli beckoning to Lim to come to him. Lim was then seen putting his right hand into his sling bag and suddenly lunging towards Staff Sgt Azli with a sharp object in his hand. On seeing this, the officer retreated backwards towards the glass panel of platform A and shouted to Lim to stop. Investigation by Senior Station Inspector Ang Ghim Sing from Criminal Investigation Department's Special Investigation Section showed that there was no room for Staff Sgt Azli to retreat further. The officer then drew his revolver and fired a single shot at Lim, who was hit in the lower neck region. He collapsed and was pronounced dead at 3.48pm by a paramedic. The inquiry continues on Monday.

 

[Yoshitsune Minamoto]

A man's troubled past

by Teo Xuanwei
05:55 AM Jan 09, 2010
<!--replace --> <script type="text/javascript"> var text = "SINGAPORE - The day before he was shot dead at Outram Park MRT Station, Lim Bock Song was seen by a psychiatrist and found to be fine.

But as the inquest into his death and that of odd-job worker Tan Ah Chong continued, more of Lim\'s troubled past was revealed.

He was first admitted to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in January 1999 for deliberately cutting his own wrist.

For the next decade, Lim, 43, was in and out of IMH for various problems, including violent behaviour. He was remanded in 1999 on a charge of causing grievous hurt and again in 2003 after he slashed his mother.

On March 6, 2008, he snapped, following what appeared to be a trivial misunderstanding with Tan.

Investigating officer Senior Station Inspector Ray Ang Ghim Sing said Tan, who had drunk two mugs of beer at a hawker centre in Jalan Kukoh, walked over to talk to a friend sitting with Lim. Fifty-one-year-old Tan was heard telling Lim he was not talking to him before walking back to his table where he told Lim off again in Hokkien.

Shortly after a shouting match of several minutes between the pair, Lim was witnessed walking over to Tan\'s table and muttering \"sorry\" before plunging a knife into the latter\'s abdomen twice.

At 3pm, Lim called his mother and told her in Hokkien that he had \"killed someone\". Before she could say anything, he hung up. Her subsequent calls went unanswered.

Lim, who was unemployed, took several train rides and ended up at Outram Park MRT station at around 3.15pm.

Closed-circuit television footage of the shooting on the train platform - from three different cameras - was shown on Friday at the coroner\'s inquiry.

When policeman Azli Othman gestured to him to move to a corner, Lim whipped out a sharp object from a black sling bag he was carrying and charged towards the Staff Sergeant.

With no room to back away from his assailant, the policeman fired a round at Lim\'s left chest, the footage showed. Lim collapsed instantaneously and was pronounced dead at 3.48pm.

The court also heard that, based on autopsy results, Lim appeared to be a multiple drug abuser. Traces of drugs such as Erimin and Ketamine were found in his body.

The inquiry continues on Monday. Teo Xuanwei

"; var pageHeight = 600; var fontIndex = 2; // var fontSize = new Array("0.63em", "0.69em", "0.75em", "0.88em", "1em", "1.13em"); var fontSize = new Array('0.63em', '0.69em', '0.75em', '0.88em', '1em', '1.13em'); </script>
SINGAPORE - The day before he was shot dead at Outram Park MRT Station, Lim Bock Song was seen by a psychiatrist and found to be fine.

But as the inquest into his death and that of odd-job worker Tan Ah Chong continued, more of Lim's troubled past was revealed.

He was first admitted to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in January 1999 for deliberately cutting his own wrist.

For the next decade, Lim, 43, was in and out of IMH for various problems, including violent behaviour. He was remanded in 1999 on a charge of causing grievous hurt and again in 2003 after he slashed his mother.

On March 6, 2008, he snapped, following what appeared to be a trivial misunderstanding with Tan.

Investigating officer Senior Station Inspector Ray Ang Ghim Sing said Tan, who had drunk two mugs of beer at a hawker centre in Jalan Kukoh, walked over to talk to a friend sitting with Lim. Fifty-one-year-old Tan was heard telling Lim he was not talking to him before walking back to his table where he told Lim off again in Hokkien.

Shortly after a shouting match of several minutes between the pair, Lim was witnessed walking over to Tan's table and muttering "sorry" before plunging a knife into the latter's abdomen twice.

At 3pm, Lim called his mother and told her in Hokkien that he had "killed someone". Before she could say anything, he hung up. Her subsequent calls went unanswered.

Lim, who was unemployed, took several train rides and ended up at Outram Park MRT station at around 3.15pm.

Closed-circuit television footage of the shooting on the train platform - from three different cameras - was shown on Friday at the coroner's inquiry.

When policeman Azli Othman gestured to him to move to a corner, Lim whipped out a sharp object from a black sling bag he was carrying and charged towards the Staff Sergeant.

With no room to back away from his assailant, the policeman fired a round at Lim's left chest, the footage showed. Lim collapsed instantaneously and was pronounced dead at 3.48pm.

The court also heard that, based on autopsy results, Lim appeared to be a multiple drug abuser. Traces of drugs such as Erimin and Ketamine were found in his body.

The inquiry continues on Monday.

Teo Xuanwei

 

[postnew]

January 12, 2010 Tuesday
MRT shooting justified
A VERDICT of justifiable homicide was recorded on Tuesday on the death of an unemployed man who was shot by a police officer at Outram Park MRT station.
Lim Bock Song was fatally wounded by a single gunshot fired by Staff Sergeant Azli Othman on March 6, 2008.
Coroner Yeo said Lim, a murder suspect and armed, clearly posed a danger to the two uniformed officers, Staff Sgt Azlii and Special Constable corporal Tan Lye Ann, who were there to detain and arrest him that day. The coroner added that Staff Sgt Azli had no other alternatives but to use his firearm to stop Lim's menacing advance.
'To that extent Staff Sergeant Azli was clearly justified in using his firearm to protect himself from the imminent danger posed to his life,' he said, adding that it was apparent from the CCTV footages that the police officer had very little time to react to Lim's aggressive behaviour.