Coroner told of revolver's link to four killings

A missing police service revolver recovered from the scene of the Tsim Sha Tsui shoot-out last year was presented in the Coroner's Court yesterday, the first evidence showing a clear connection between the deaths of three police constables and a security guard in three cases spread over five years.

The court also heard that items seized during the investigation of the death of Tsui Po-ko, one of the constables gunned down in a Tsim Sha Tsui underpass on March 17 last year, had led police back to two deaths in 2001.

The two cases are the deaths of constable Leung Shing-yan on March 14, 2001, and bank security guard Zafar Iqbal Khan, who died in a robbery on December 5, 2001.

At yesterday's hearing, the 12th day of a joint inquest into the four deaths, coroner's officer Arthur Luk Yee-shun SC said the revolver, which went missing at the time of Leung's death, was found at the scene of the TST shoot-out.

Ballistics evidence heard on Tuesday showed Leung and bank security guard Khan were shot dead with the same gun.

Sergeant Shing Tsz-yin, attached to the Organised Crime and Triad Bureau, said he raided Tsui's Tung Chung home after learning that he was one of the officers who died in the Tsim Sha Tsui shoot-out.

Tsui's wife, a six-year-old girl and a Filipino maid were in the flat as he took away several pieces of evidence, including albums, shoes and home video tapes during two raids on the same day.