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May 15, 2015

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Officer ‘doing his duty’ when he shot man at train station

By Li Qian | May 15, 2015, Friday | Print Edition

A POLICE officer who shot and killed a man in front of his mother and three small children at a train station in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province was justified in his actions, according to an investigation by local railway police.

It found that Li Lebin was doing his duty and had followed the rules on the use of firearms, China Central Television reported yesterday.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Public Security said it had despatched a work team to Qing’an County to gather evidence and witness statements about the May 2 incident.

But it is understood that the investigation was then left in the hands of local officers.

Xu Chunhe, 45, had violently attacked the officer at the station in Qing’an, Harbin railway police said yesterday.

Li told CCTV that Xu had pushed an elderly woman and a young girl toward him, showing that he was “severely endangering others’ lives.”

Xu had grabbed his baton and was beating him on the head and body with it.

“I could hardly hold my gun,” he said. “It would have been unimaginable if he had seized the gun.”

Li said he didn’t fire a warning shot as he was afraid of hitting other passengers. He also had no time to think about avoiding Xu’s vital organs as the two were too close together and Xu was beating him, he told CCTV.

Xu had been preventing other travelers checking into the station and Li intervened, holding his hands together to let passengers enter.

After he was released, Xu chased and beat Li and because people at the scene were in imminent danger Li shot him, police said.

Surveillance videos aired by CCTV showed Xu had punched Li on the face, hit him with a water bottle and swung at him, knocking off his cap. After Li took out his baton, Xu pushed his mother and his 6-year-old daughter toward him.

Xu grabbed the baton, hitting Li on the head and hand.

He didn’t stop even when Li took out his gun. Instead, he approached Li, trying to hit him again. Li then opened fire, the videos showed.

A witnesses surnamed Wang told CCTV that Li had shouted at Xu to stop several times but Xu was behaving “like a maniac.”

Xu’s family told CCTV the shooting was an overreaction.

Xu had been drinking and was barring other passengers from entering because he was under the influence of alcohol, Xu’s cousin, Xu Chunli, told Shandong Satellite Television.

“Li should have handcuffed him instead of letting him go,” he said.

Police said Xu had been planning to take his mother, Quan Yushun, 81, and his three children to Dalian in Liaoning Province to visit relatives.

The cousin said the trouble began after the family were prevented from boarding their train.

Xu had previously complained to higher authorities about government assistance for his poverty-stricken family, drawing unwelcome scrutiny on the local government, the cousin said.

But he said the trip to Dalian was not for petition issues.

The county’s petitioning authority told The Beijing News that its records showed Xu and his family have never lodged complaints in the province.

Begging on the streets

Shortly after the shooting, there were rumors that railway employees had recognized the family, who had reportedly lodged complaints with higher authorities in Beijing, and that’s why they tried to prevent them entering.

Qing’an officials said Quan, who had taken her grandchildren to beg on the streets of Beijing, Dalian and Yichun previously, had been questioned by local civil affairs authorities, the paper reported.

Quan would answer that she was asking for help to send three children to orphanages as the family couldn’t afford to look after them, it reported.

Qing’an authorities were asked twice by officials in Beijing to bring the family back to Qing’an.

CCTV said that Xu, an alcoholic, and his wife, who had mental problems, didn’t work. The family lived on government allowances of about 20,000 yuan (US$3,226) a year.

Xu was cremated on May 5. His mother has been sent to a nursing home, his wife to hospital and the children to a children’s welfare center.

Nation


 

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