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Two members of the "Flying Tigers" police special duties are waiting to climb into the flat when several flashes and smoke are seen from inside the flat. Photo: Dickson Lee
A jobless ex-convict shot himself dead 12 hours after he was suspected to have killed an air-conditioning technician neighbour, in a drama that saw the firing of seven gunshots and 20 rounds of teargas and stun grenades in the Kowloon Bay public housing estate.
A police source told the South China Morning Post said mental illness was among their lines of investigation and they were probing more on the background of the gunman, Lee Tak-yan, 51, and whether he knew the victim, Li Kai-chung, 43. Both lived in Lok Ching House of Kai Ching Estate, which was only completed last August.
“At this stage, [a] mental problem is one of the possibilities” the source said, adding the gunman, who was later found to have possessed two guns at his flat, was released from jail last year for a non-triad related wounding case in 2011 in Tin Shui Wai.
Both Lee and Liu had a wife on the mainland. Liu, an air-conditioning technician, is survived by his wife in Zhuhai and a five-year-old son who lives with his sister in Hong Kong.
Drama unfolded around 11.20pm on Saturday night when residents of the Lok Ching House heard arguing followed by three gunshots and discovered the man dead on the 21st floor lift lobby.
The source told the Post that the CCTV footage showed the gunman taking the lift with Liu and other residents.
“CCTV footage showed they did not have any conversation inside the lift,” the source said.
Liu walked out onto the 21st floor and Lee followed. Residents called the police after hearing gunshots.
Police said an initial examination showed two shots hit Liu in the chest and one in his back. Three 7.62mm-calibre empty cartridges were found at the scene.
The source said the CCTV footage of the lift and security guards helped indentify the suspect. Lee was believed to have taken the staircase back to his 10th floor home as the footage did not show him taking the lift after the shootout.
“Special equipment was used to spy inside his flat to ensure that Lee was alone inside and no one was taken hostage,” the source said.
The police cordoned off the 10th floor in the morning and phoned residents there to stay indoors and lie on the ground.
Shortly before 11am, the suspect fired two shots at the police, who returned one shot. No one was hurt.
Lee then clambered onto a window ledge and pointed a gun at his own head for less than one minute, as more than 150 officers wearing body armour surrounded the building.
A fourth gunshot was heard from the flat at around 11.13am.
Smoke and sparks were seen as officers fired over 20 rounds of teargas and stun grenades to break into the flat about 30 minutes later. A pair of ’Flying Tigers’ special duties officers slid down ropes from a flat above and entered the apartment.
The suspect was found lying unconscious in the flat, and was then rushed to the United Christian Hospital where he was declared dead.
Police believe Lee killed himself with a 7.62 calibre pistol, which is believed to be different from the one he suspected to have used to kill Liu as the bullets found were of different length.
Lee was released from prison in 2012 and moved into the Kai Ching estate last August. He had divorced his first wife and remarried, with his current wife living in China. He had no previous record of psychiatric illness.
All residents entering and leaving the building were searched by police officers in the lobby on Sunday morning.
"Do I need to get myself one of those bulletproof vests too?" asked one resident, surnamed Chan, when told by neighbours that the assailant may still be hiding in the building.
The 67-year-old who lives on 33/F said he had not heard any gunshots last night and thought the Kai Ching Estate was a safe neighbourhood.
A suspect with a handgun pointing towards his head climbs out of a window.
When asked whether the police had taken enough precaution in re-opening the building on Sunday morning allowing residents to enter and leave, Chau said: “When we confirmed which floor the suspect was living in, we closed all passages to that floor. It was safe for other residents to go freely in and out [of the building].”
One resident of the building said he had heard the voices of quarelling men both before and after last night’s shooting.
A suspect is taken to the hospital. Photo: Edward Wong
Liu lived alone in a flat on the floor where he was found.
He moved in last December, said Chau. Police officers found nothing illegal in his flat and nothing is believed to have been taken. He is not thought to have had a triad background.
“We so far believe and suspect that the incident may be related to his background and whether he had contracted any enmity. We are investigating in this direction,” said Chau.
He added that police were also looking into whether the shooting may be related to his work or whether he had committed any crime.
One male resident who had children said he was very scared. “I heard quarrelling noises, they were very loud and were still shouting after the gunshots.”
Another man living nearby said, “I heard three shots – bang, bang, bang… I think they were around two to three minutes apart.”
Photo: Dickson Lee
Residents of the public housing estate complained that they had not been kept informed about the incident.
A resident who lives on the eleventh floor, one story above the gunshot scene, said police gave no information to them about the operation.
"I heard officers walking and talking outside my house this morning," said the man surnamed Lau, who moved into the block in November. "But I've received no calls so far from [the police] to tell me to stay at home whatsoever."
He said he received information from TV news.
He lived in the flat with his wife and daughter and said he didn't know his neighbours, but public security of the block was generally "acceptable".
Another resident, 24-year-old Sandy Lam Yung-yin who lives on the 30th floor, said no one had called her to tell her what to do.
Three shots were heard by residents of Lok Ching House on Kai Ching Estate at 11am this morning. Photo: Dickson Lee
"I called the estate management office and only got told to stay home. Many elderly people live next door and they didn't know what happened," she said.
Lam added that the public security of the block was sometimes unsatisfactory.
"There's sometimes only one security guard monitoring the whole building. When's he's away patrolling, the main entrance will be left unguarded," she said.
But she added that she has seen no suspicious people wandering around on the estate since she had moved in last November.
Many residents of Kai Ching Estate either live alone or are new immigrants from the mainland, said a resident surnamed Wong, who was among the first batch to move into the building last summer.
"We [local Hongkongers] are the minority here," she said. "Many residents here are very hot-tempered and I often hear noises downstairs when some swear loudly at night when they forget the door passcode."
Investigations by the Regional Anti-triad Unit of Kowloon East are under way. Police are calling on anyone who witnessed the incident or has any information to offer to contact the investigating officers on 2726 6272.
Re: Tower block murder suspect kills himself after shooting drama leaves one other de
Hong Kong man kills himself after gunfight with police
AFP
June 1, 2014, 3:15 pm
Hong Kong (AFP) - A jobless murder suspect was found dead after exchanging fire with Hong Kong police at a high-rise residential block early Sunday and is believed to have shot him himself, officers said.
Police said several shots were fired during a standoff that lasted around an hour. They said the man was found dead when police burst into his flat and is thought to have committed suicide.
Television showed a horde of armed police tactical unit officers, some of them wearing helmets and others with gas masks and bulletproof vests, arriving in the Choi Hung district Sunday morning, while residents and journalists were shepherded away.
Two officers at one point were lowered by ropes down the exterior of the block to the floor housing the suspect's flat.
Such dramatic scenes are rare in Hong Kong, a city with a low crime rate where gun crime is rare.
At one point during the standoff, a man was seen standing at the edge of a window, pointing a gun to his head and mumbling, before moving back into the flat.
"The sound of a door being broken down...was followed by a number of suspected shots, with smoke and sparks seen coming from the flat at Lok Shing House, Kowloon West," the South China Morning Post reported on its website.
Superintendent Chau Hin-hung said police forced their way into the man's apartment but found him unconscious on the floor.
"We believe he committed suicide, presumably with his own gun," he told reporters.
He identified the man as a 51-year-old jobless Hong Kong resident who was a suspect in an earlier murder.
The Post said a 43-year-old air conditioning technician had on Saturday been gunned down at a lift lobby in the same block following a heated argument.
Two "Flying Tigers" officers slide down ropes and enter Li Tak-yan's apartment as the stand-off ends. Photo: Edward Wong
A jobless ex-convict who shot himself dead yesterday 12 hours after allegedly killing a resident of his public housing estate had previously been jailed for wounding another neighbour.
Police were investigating gunman Li Tak-yan's background and looking for any links to Liu Kai-chung, 43, who was fatally shot late on Saturday night. A police source said there was no indication the two men knew each other.
Liu was found in the lift lobby near his home on the 21st floor of Lok Ching House on the Kai Ching Estate in Kowloon Bay. Li, 51, lived 11 floors below.
The shooting sparked a 12-hour drama, which ended when elite police used stun grenades and tear gas to storm Li's flat. They found him fatally wounded with a gun by his side.
A police source said mental health issues were among the lines of investigation. "At this stage, a mental problem is one of the possibilities, " the source said.
Three shots were heard by residents of Lok Ching House in Kai Ching Estate at 11am this morning. Photos: Dickson Lee
Lee Tak-yan points a gun at his head on the ledge of his flat. Photo: Cable TV
The suspect is taken to the hospital. Photo: Edward Wong
The source also revealed that Li - a mainland immigrant - had served time in jail in 2011 for attacking a neighbour in Yuen Long with a chopper and hammer.
The latest drama began at about 11.20pm on Saturday when residents on the 21st floor heard arguing followed by three gunshots. Liu was shot twice in the chest and once in the back. Three empty 7.62mm cartridges were found at the scene.
The police source said CCTV footage showed Li and Liu taking the lift with other residents. Liu walked out at the 21st floor and Li followed. "CCTV footage showed they did not have any conversation inside the lift," the source said. Li then returned to his flat, where he lived alone. Police cordoned off the building until 5am when residents were allowed back inside.
The police source said the CCTV footage helped to identify Li as the gunman. Police sealed off the 10th floor, phoning residents and ordering them to stay inside as 150 officers surrounded the building.
Shortly before 11am, Li fired two shots at police, who returned a single shot. No one was hurt. Li then clambered onto his flat's window ledge and pointed a gun at his head before returning inside, from where a gunshot was heard at 11.13am. Police then fired more than 20 rounds of tear gas and stun grenades into the flat and two "Flying Tigers" special duty officers slid down ropes and entered. Li was found unconscious with a 7.62mm gun by his side. A second 7.62mm weapon was found later. Li was declared dead at a hospital.
Police are working with Guangdong authorities to trace the guns, as such weapons usually come from the mainland.
Liu, an air-conditioning technician, is survived by his wife in Zhuhai and a son, five, who lives with Liu's sister in Hong Kong. Li's wife also lives on the mainland.
Correction: An earlier version of this article gave the name of the alleged gunman as Lee Tak-yan, the name released by police on Sunday. On Monday evening, police confirmed that the suspect's name is Li Tak-yan.
Re: Tower block murder suspect kills himself after shooting drama leaves one other de
Alleged gunman Li Tak-yan was lonely, volatile but not mentally ill, court heard in 2012
Reports during trial for knife attack found Li had difficulty controlling his emotions and dealing with stress, but was not at high risk of committing another violent offence
A man believed to be alleged gunman Li Tak-yan is taken from the apartment building to an ambulance on Sunday. Photo: Dickson Lee
Alleged Kowloon Bay gunman Li Tak-yan was a lonely person who had difficulty controlling his emotions and dealing with stress, but was not mentally ill, according to reports submitted to the court that convicted him two years ago of attacking a neighbour with a knife.
While a District Court judge described Li's behaviour as “abnormal”, a psychologist found the risk of Li committing another violent offence was “not high”. He was jailed for a year.
On August 1, 2011, Li was jobless, divorced and living alone in the Long Bin temporary housing estate in Yuen Long. A neighbour leaving his apartment with his girlfriend found Li talking to himself in a corridor.
The court heard that Li had followed the couple downstairs to the building’s car park, where he quarrelled with them. When the neighbour tried to take a photo of him, Li took a knife from his bag and slashed at the neighbours hand. Li later said noise from the victim’s apartment had disturbed his sleep.
A psychological report prepared for his trial said Li was a “lonely person with poor skills in handling stress”. The psychologist’s assessment was that Li had committed the offence because he found it difficult to control his emotions.
In a mitigation letter submitted to the court, Li's eldest daughter, who was 24 at the time, described him as a “good father”.
Li's lawyer said he had been badly affected by the collapse of his trading business, after the handover in 1997, and his marriage in 2010.
Li “was unable to accept such changes” and had no outlet for his frustrations “as he did not have many friends”, his barrister Flora Cheng Suk-Yee said according to the judgment.
Cheng added that Li was “truly remorseful” and had pleaded guilty to wounding.
Though two psychiatric examinations carried out in November 2011 concluded Li had no psychiatric illnesses, deputy district judge Cheang Kei-hong said Li's behaviour had been abnormal. In order to confirm that Li would not pose a threat to the public after serving his sentence, two more psychiatric examinations were ordered.
Both also concluded Li was not suffering from a mental illness.
On Saturday night, a 43-year-old air-conditioner technician, Liu Kai-chung, was shot dead in the lift lobby near his home on the 21st floor of Lok Ching House in Kowloon Bay.
The shooting sparked a 12-hour drama, which ended when elite police used stun grenades and tear gas to storm Li’s flat. They found him fatally wounded with a gun by his side; he was later declared dead at a nearby hospital.
Li was born in Hunan in 1963 and came to Hong Kong in 1980. He was married in Hunan in 1987. His wife and daughter joined him in Hong Kong in 1992 and his second daughter was born in 1995. He lived a happy life at the time, his barrister said in 2012.
In 1995 and 1997, he was convicted of illegal gambling and was fined HK$200 and HK$500 respectively.
He was forced to abandon a job as a chef after his left hand was injured in a robbery, according to court documents. The date of that incident was not provided.
His trading business deteriorated from 1997, which he said led to his marriage falling apart. He was divorced in 2010 and he moved into the Yuen Long interim housing estate to live alone.
Correction: An earlier version of this article gave the name of the alleged gunman as Lee Tak-yan, the name released by police on Sunday. On Monday evening, police confirmed that the suspect's name is Li Tak-yan.
Re: Tower block murder suspect kills himself after shooting drama leaves one other de
Neighbours trapped in flats watched dramatic stand-off on live TV
Residents of Lok Ching House, where alleged gunman Li Tak-yan lived, were divided in their assessments of how police handled the incident
Elite police officers inside Lok Ching House in Kowloon Bay on Sunday. Photo: Reuters
A resident who lived on the same floor as suspected Kowloon Bay gunman Li Tak-yan has recalled how she watched his dramatic stand-off with police, happening just a few doors away, unfold live on television after being told by officers to stay in her flat.
The 10th floor resident of Lok Ching House on the Kai Ching Estate, who gave the surname Lai, said she was not worried about her safety as she watched elite police drop stun grenades into her neighbour’s flat on television.
“It was even louder than the sound of firecrackers,” the woman said on Monday.
But another resident of the building criticised police for not providing any information to residents not living on the 10th floor, saying she had been very frightened and followed the incident on television inside her flat on the 30th floor.
“If the police had given us a set of guidelines we would have been more relieved instead of being so afraid and not knowing what to do,” she said.
The police had made phone calls to those on the 10th floor, asking them to stay inside, but not to the other floors.
A 43-year-old air-conditioner technician, Liu Kai-chung, was shot dead in the lift lobby near his home on the 21st floor of Lok Ching House in Kowloon Bay on Saturday night.
Watch: Police ask reporters to take cover after fresh gunshots heard in Hong Kong apartment tower
The shooting sparked a 12-hour drama, which ended when elite police used stun grenades and tear gas to storm Li’s flat. They found him fatally wounded with a gun by his side; he was later declared dead at a nearby hospital.
On Monday morning, officers were stationed at both the 21st floor and the 10th floor. Several chalk markings could be seen in the corridor of the 21st floor, while officers appeared to be continuing to search the suspect’s flat on the 10th floor. Three police vehicles were parked outside the entrance to Lok Ching House.
Democratic Party lawmaker James To Kun-sun said the police had struck a balance between not alerting the suspect while protecting the safety of other residents.
He praised officers’ performance and the speed with which they identified the suspect in an interview with RTHK on Monday.
Correction: An earlier version of this article gave the name of the alleged gunman as Lee Tak-yan, the name released by police on Sunday. On Monday evening, police confirmed that the suspect's name is Li Tak-yan.
