Pressure on police increased yesterday over their delay in warning the public about last week's chopping attacks in Tseung Kwan O, as officers investigated possible drug abuse by the suspect in the case.
The Liberal Party added its voice to a chorus of critics, in a letter to security chief Ambrose Lee Siu-kwong and police commissioner Andy Tsang Wai-hung, urging police to release information immediately about crimes that threaten public safety.
Meanwhile, Sai Kung District councillor Chan Kai-wai called for more police officers to be posted in Tseung Kwan O, saying a rapid population increase and rise in gangrelated crime had left police unable to cope. Local leaders have voiced similar concern for months.
Four men were slashed in separate attacks on the night of October 2 and early next morning in Tseung Kwan O, but police did not release details until three days ago - after a newspaper broke the story earlier that day.
Police are investigating whether the suspect, arrested on Monday night, was under the influence of illegal drugs at the time of the attacks. The suspect, 31, was jailed in the past for possessing dangerous drugs, officers from the Kwun Tong district crime squad said.
Describing the four attacks as motiveless and random, one police officer said the suspect, a decoration worker, did not know the victims and has no known history of mental illness. Officers tracked him down by checking video footage from security cameras in buildings near the attacks. Videos show the suspect - whose clothing matched victims' descriptions - leaving and returning to Tak Chak House in Hau Tak Estate, Tseung Kwan O, on two to three occasions that coincided with the timing of the attacks, police said.
Plain-clothes officers lay in wait for the man outside his building, arresting him at about 10.30pm on Monday. Police later took him - hooded and handcuffed - back to his flat where they seized two meat cleavers, a chopper and a fruit knife.
