When a gunman killed three Hong Kong police officers in a six-hour battle in the New Territories
- From a hideout in thick bush near a village in Tai Po, the gunman held more than 150 officers at bay for six hours before being shot dead
- The incident began when he killed an off-duty officer. An inquest jury recommended an applicant’s mental health be considered when issuing firearms licences
“A Taipo villager, armed with a shotgun, killed three police officers, including a European Divisional Superintendent, and wounded 12 other policemen in a six-hour gun battle yesterday afternoon,” the South China Morning Post reported on May 25, 1964. “After holding more than 150 armed policemen at bay from a hideout in a ditch in thick bush near the village, the killer was eventually shot dead when he left his refuge and charged at two police officers.
“The Superintendent was killed when, armed with a Sterling gun, and accompanied by another police officer, he went into the ditch in an effort to capture the gunman. The villager leapt on him, grabbed his gun from him and killed him with a burst of automatic fire.
“The battle started shortly after noon, when the villager, identified as Lam Kei-ping, killed an off-duty police corporal with a shotgun near the village of Hang Ha Po, just off the Lam-Kam Highway.”
On July 25, the Post reported that “an inquest jury yesterday recommended that the authorities in Hongkong should exercise greater care in the granting of firearm licences, ‘especially in cases where an applicant’s mental state is questionable’.
“The three-man jury made the recommendation after returning a unanimous verdict of murder at an inquest on three police officers killed by a villager during a gun battle in the New Territories on May 24. The jury returned a verdict of justifiable homicide on the villager […]