Shootings stir Hong Kong concerns
By Tonny Chan (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-02-22 02:58

Hong Kong's top security official yesterday expressed serious concern over two shooting incidents in less than three weeks, saying that authorities will do whatever is necessary to stem the flow of guns into the region.

The comments by Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee come in response to the Sunday shooting of a 49-year-old life underwriter at a crowded restaurant in the busy district of Causeway Bay.

Cheng Kwok-shing was still fighting for his life at Queen Mary Hospital, hospital officials told China Daily. His condition remains critical.

It was the second shooting in less than three weeks. On February 3, an Asian man was shot dead while dining with friends at a cooked-food stall in a public housing estate in Ho Man Tin.

Addressing a press briefing at the government's headquarters, Lee said police are "very concerned" about the incidents.

"In both cases... guns were involved. We and the police force are seriously concerned about this," Lee told the morning briefing.

"While police investigation is under way, everyone of us hopes to see fewer such crimes. We will do whatever we can to stem the flow of guns in the black market into the SAR," Lee assured.

A police spokesperson said they were still investigating Sunday's shooting. The incident happened at the Jade Garden Restaurant in Hysan Avenue about 4:15 pm while the victim was waiting on the stairs for his wife and four-year-old son who went to a washroom after having a meal at the restaurant.

A lone gunman wearing a white surgical mask and light-coloured knitted hat approached him, shot him in his abdomen and ripped off his Rolex watch before escaping to Percival Street where he vanished in the crowd. Police said the gunman was about 1.73 metres high.

The victim is reported to be the general manager of the Shenzhen operation of American International Assurance Company (AIA) and was just back to Hong Kong after opening another office in Shenzhen.

Eighteen days ago in Ho Man Tin, a middle-aged man with a "pony-tail" hairstyle was executed by two gunmen. He was shot three times as he dined with six to seven men at the cooked-food stall about 6:30 pm.

The man's personal belongings including cash, a luxury watch and a diamond ring were not snatched.

Two men, aged 36 and 42, have been respectively charged with one count of conspiracy to murder and one count of assisting offenders in relation to the Ho Man Tin shooting. Two other men, aged 29 and 36, have also been arrested in relation to the case.

According to police figures, the law and order situation improved generally in 2004 with 7,062 fewer cases, down 8 per cent from 88,377 cases in 2003 to 81,315 in 2004 in spite of a rise in crimes involving the use of firearms, stun guns and pistol-like objects.

The number of robberies with firearms, stun guns and pistol-like objects rose to a total of 57 cases in 2004 from 48 cases in 2003. Homicides, meanwhile, dropped from 52 in 2003 to 45 last year.

(China Daily 02/22/2005 page1)

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