The family and friends of Tsui Po-ko, the policeman suspected of killing a colleague in last month's Tsim Sha Tsui shoot-out, held a vigil for him ahead of his funeral today. The Buddhist ceremony at the Po Fook Hill columbarium hall in Sha Tin was a low-key affair. There were no wreaths outside the second-floor room used by the family and a screen blocked the view of reporters. Tsui's family said the vigil was restricted to relatives and friends of the 35-year-old, a 13-year veteran of the force who was serving on North Lantau at the time of his death. Some attending the vigil wore surgical masks to cover their faces; others held up their hands or handbags. No uniformed police officers attended. Inside the hall, monks and nuns chanted prayers and the sounds of bells and percussion could be heard. A picture of Tsui was placed in the centre of the hall, below a message that he was 'heading to a place of purity'. Tsui's family did not say whether he would be buried or cremated, nor where the funeral will be held. Yesterday's ritual was a modest one compared with the vigil and funeral for the other constable killed in the shooting, Tsang Kwok-hang, 33, who was buried in the presence of the police commissioner and with full honours in Gallant Garden, the cemetery reserved for public servants who die in the line of duty. Police say that, despite being fatally wounded, Tsang fired five shots at Tsui, who also died at the scene of the shooting - an underpass on the corner of Austin Road and Cameron Road. Following his death, police said they would have had enough evidence to charge Tsui with the murder of Tsang, another constable, Leung Shing-yan, who was robbed of his police-issue revolver and shot with it in Lei Muk Shue in 2001, and Zafar Iqbal Khan, a security guard shot dead in a robbery at a Hang Seng Bank branch in Tsuen Wan later that year. Leung's gun was used to kill Tsang and Khan. Police say they have not yet found evidence to link the deaths - and the shooting of Constable Sin Ka-keung, who was patrolling with Tsang when they and Tsui, who was off duty, exchanged fire - to soccer gambling, as media reports have said was the case.
