Murdered officer's fate sealed when he swapped lunch break

The policeman shot dead with his own gun after being lured to a Tsuen Wan public housing block sealed his fate when he swapped his lunch break with a colleague, police said yesterday.

Investigations into the murder of Constable Leung Shing-yan, 23, are now focused on possible video footage from a lift that might have captured both the policeman and his killer, sources said.

Constable Leung, attached to the patrol sub-unit of Lei Muk Shue police station in Tsuen Wan, was originally due to have lunch in the station at the time of his murder, a source said.

'According to the original schedule the officer was not assigned to patrol in the area [Shek Wai Kok Estate] at this time. In the morning he interviewed a witness in connection with a case . . . After the interview, he swapped the lunchtime period with his colleague and then went on patrol alone,' the police source said.

It is not known why Leung made the fatal switch of shifts, but initial investigations found he had not been personally targeted and any officer patrolling in the area could have gone.

A huge manhunt continued yesterday for the killer of Leung, who died after being sent to the estate at 12.05pm on Wednesday in response to a male caller who complained about noise coming from a flat.

A police source said investigators were hoping Leung, and possibly his killer, may have been filmed in a lift on their way to the fifth floor, where he was shot dead.