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Martin Wong

Star-shaped wound shows weapon was held against head, says forensics expert

Constable Leung Shing-yan who was killed in 2001 suffered a contact shot - where the muzzle is in contact with the body - directly to his head, the Coroner's Court heard yesterday.

Leung Sai-leung, a former senior police forensic firearms examiner, made this conclusion because the wound found on top of his skull was 'star-shaped', caused by the tip of the barrel.

'A star-shaped wound is a typical shape for a contact shot,' Dr Leung said.

As well as his head, Leung was found to have been shot in his back, neck and left shoulder.

Leung was also believed to have touched his revolver at one point - although he did not fire it - before he was shot five times on March 14, 2001, Dr Leung told the coroner.

The gunman who shot the constable might also have squatted near a fire exit when he attacked.

Retired forensics expert Henry Cheung Kam-yin, who yesterday gave evidence on three of the five shots, said an analysis of bloodstain patterns suggested the  gunman might have been sitting or squatting  near the right fire door in the fifth-floor corridor of a housing estate in Tsuen Wan when he opened fire at Leung.

He did not rule out the possibility  some objects might have been between the  gunman and the deceased if the shooter had not squatted down when he opened fire.

Leung was found dead in a pool of blood near the fire exit on the fifth floor of Shek To House in Shek Wai Kok Estate when he was on his way to respond to a noise complaint.

Dr Cheung said  the scene was the most complicated he had encountered. A fan-shaped pool of blood and brain tissue was found radiating from Leung's head, suggesting a shot had been fired into his head after he fell, he  said.

From the measurements of the bloodstains, Dr Cheung gave the opinion that the bullet hit Leung at a point 90cm distant from the fire doors and at a height of less than 20cm from the ground - which meant this particular shot was fired when Leung was lying down.

Two of the impact sites  - exactly where the bullets hit the body - were both very close to the ground near the fire door,  Dr Cheung noted.  However, his analysis could not determine from what angles the bullets were fired.

Dr Leung  said a test  on the constable's  hands at the mortuary found that the area between the thumb and index finger of his right hand had touched an 'iron object' - probably his revolver. But another test showed that Leung did not open fire.

Dr Leung said bullets in the  body had broken down into copper bullet jacket fragments - and only four of them could provide striation-mark information to identify if they were fired from the same gun.

An almost intact bullet jacket, believed to be a misfired bullet found  at the crime scene, also showed striation marks, he added.

'And I can say that they were all fired by the same police gun,' he said. Dr Leung said he could not tell if the rest of the bullet jackets had come from the same gun, but they all belonged to the same type of bullet, which was a 0.38 calibre, usually used by the police.

He believed the constable was  shot five times because there were   five  wounds - all bullet entry holes - on his body.

The inquest continues today.



Gunman fired point blank at constable