Eye-witnesses express outrage after truck-driving protester shot dead by SWAT team
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 20 May, 2014, 5:16pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 20 May, 2014, 6:52pm
Keira Lu Huang [email protected]
A truck blocked the door of a local government building in Zhenxiong county, Yunnan province. Fang Jiushu was later shot dead by police. Photo: Xinhua
A man was shot dead by a SWAT team last week when he slowly drove his truck, laden with protest banners, towards a local government building, the Beijing News said.
Fang Jiushu was said to have been protesting against the country government for jailing him after he and his brother picketed a thermal power plant.
But while the local police praised the SWAT team for dealing with the suspect in accordance to with law, witnesses in Zhenxiong county, Yunnan province, have voiced different opinions.
More than a hundred witnesses signed a letter claiming that the man “did not threaten public safety”. The letter added “the situation described by the police was not accurate”, and said “police should not have shot the suspect”.
However, a report from the local procuratorate said that “the dead suspect threatened public safety in dangerous ways”. It added police opened fire in accordance with the law “to protect people’s life and property”.
According to the local public safety bureau, last Thursday afternoon, the Luokan police station received a report saying a man driving a truck was ramming into crowds heading for the market, and had already injured three people.
After the suspect ignored a warning, police shot him. He died on the way to hospital.
According to his wife Zhou Xun’e, on April 1, he and his brother were jailed for 30 days and 15 days respectively for “picking a fight in public” after they blocked grid construction work in 2012.
It was claimed the thermal power plant did not issue proper compensation in line with market values when they built a transmission line on his land.
Last Thursday, Fang drove a truck with banners claiming the injustice against him to the county government.
Many saw the truck parked close to the gate.
Fang Jiucheng, the brother of the dead man, said later that they did meet government officials but not the chief. While they were there, a local government worker asked them to leave.
The SWAT team later arrived in two black police cars, the Beijing News reported. .
“Fang Jiucheng started to peel off those banners [from the truck], right after he took off the first one, two police hand cuffed him and took him into the car,” said Chen Shoukui, security guard of the government building. “His brother, Fang Jiushu, saw it and jumped into the truck immediately.”
Another witness, Guan Yuchun, told the paper that after Fang Jiushu got into the truck, two SWAT team members approached him and tried to drag him down, but he waved a 50cm-long knife before putting it away.
“He did wave it to the police but didn’t hurt anyone. No one was hurt,” said Guan.
He then started the truck.
After a few seconds, the crowd heard a gunshot.
“He was driving slowly, slower than people walk,” said Guan. “But I saw a plain-clothed police officer firing his gun toward the sky.”
According to Xiong Tao, a spokesman for the county government, police fired four times using 12 bullets in total. The first time was into the air as a warning, then officers shot his tyres and as Fang didn’t stop the truck, they fired another warning before finally opening fire on Fang.
But Guan said a SWAT team member then used a chair to break the truck’s window and fired three shots inside.
Xiong Tao claimed that police did not want to shoot Fang dead but had no choice.
“Some argue it was not that dangerous, but this is not entirely objective. Police with professional training have a more complete judgment of the situation. Whether it’s legal for police to fire the gun, it’s the conclusion the procuratorate should make. It’s not the crowd’s call, or the police’s.”
Locals said that the three people injured were hit by the truck after Fang was shot and lost control of it. This contradicts the police report which stated that the three had been injured before the police arrived.
Wang Yingguo, from the Zhenxiong public safety bureau said surveillance cameras had recorded everything
