A MAN gunned down in a hail of police bullets is suffering severe mental and physical scars from the ordeal and should be spared the ordeal of prison, the District Court was told yesterday.
Yeung Wai-shing was hit twice - in the upper torso and lower abdomen - when police swooped on a gang suspected of trying to steal a $1.5 million Mercedes-Benz. He was behind the wheel of a car nearby.
He spent two months in hospital and a year later still suffers serious mental problems, his defence counsel, John Hemmings, said. Yeung was earlier found guilty after denying attempted theft.
Jean Hopkin, prosecuting, alleged Yeung, 25, was driving towards a police car blockading a cul-de-sac's only exit when he was shot.
He was in a Honda Accord which had been parked next to the Mercedes which two accomplices were trying to break in to. When officers blocked the road, the prosecution claimed Yeung began to drive towards the blockade, and officers opened fire.
However, Yeung's defence counsel argued his client was shot while reversing away from the officers.
