bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

POLICE yesterday claimed the firing of 19 shots to stop a suspected car thief on Tuesday night had been justified on grounds that ''officers' lives were in danger''.

   The suspect, Lee Bun, 28, remained in critical condition at Queen Elizabeth Hospital last night.

  A police source said doctors had difficulty in removing a bullet from Lee's forehead - one of five shots that hit him - because it had lodged close to his left eye.

  He was also wounded in the chest and left arm.

  Police said Lee had been on police bail, after being arrested over an earlier offence.

  He had also been suspended from driving earlier this year over a serious traffic offence, police said.

  In Tuesday's incident, police opened fire after a car chase failed to stop the fleeing vehicle, believed to have been stolen in Kowloon Tong.

   Police said the driver of the car ignored warnings to stop and tried to ram them. Police are still hunting a second suspect who escaped before the shooting.

  Police said four west Kowloon Emergency Unit constables had fired 17 shots and an auxiliary policeman had fired two.

  Police district commander in Kowloon City, Chief Superintendent Ken Wallis, said initial reports on the shooting revealed the action was justified.

  ''The suspect's car was coming at speed towards the officers. It was fast enough for officers to fear that they would be run over.

  ''No doubt he was going to run them down if he could. Officers had to fire 19 shots because the car was still coming at them during the 20-second period.

  ''Officers either feared for themselves or other officers getting hurt,'' he said.

  Mr Wallis said there was little room for the officers to manoeuvre because they were in a confined space and in the middle of the road.

  Internal police orders state an officer can open fire ''to protect himself or any other person from death or serious bodily injury or to effect the arrest of any person who he has reason to believe has committed a serious and violent crime''.

  Deputy Convenor of the Legco security panel, Simon Ip Sik-on, said he did not see a particular reason to hold a special meeting to discuss the matter.

  ''I'm not going to call a special meeting. But if other members want to they will have to either inform me or Elsie Tu who is the convenor,'' he said.

  ''Police have their duties to perform and we don't look at every single police operation unless something appears to be very unusual.

  ''It seems [Tuesday's shooting] to be a police operational matter,'' he said.

  But Moses Cheng Mo-chi of the Liberal Party said the panel should hold a meeting so that police could explain whether the action was justified.

  ''I can't comment on whether excessive force had been used in arresting the suspect,'' Mr Cheng said.

  James To Kun-sun of the United Democrats said he did not have sufficient information to judge whether the shooting was justified.



Police claim 19 bullets fired in chase justified