Holding up posters saying “Don’t shoot our kids,” Hong Kong residents and schoolmates of a teenage demonstrator shot at close range in the chest by a police officer rallied yesterday to condemn police actions and demand accountability.
The shooting on Tuesday during widespread anti-government demonstrations on China’s National Day was a fearsome escalation in Hong Kong’s protest violence.
The 18-year-old is the first known victim of police gunfire since the protests began in June. He was hospitalized and his condition was yesterday described by the government as stable.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The officer fired as the teen, Tsang Chi-kin (曾志健), struck him with a metal rod.
The use of lethal weaponry is sure to inflame widespread public anger about police tactics during the crisis, widely condemned as heavy-handed.
“The Hong Kong police have gone trigger-happy and nuts,” pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo (毛孟靜) said yesterday.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Mo, who said she repeatedly watched videos of the shooting, echoed what many people expressed.
“The sensible police response should have been to use a police baton or pepper spray, etc, to fight back. It wasn’t exactly an extreme situation and the use of a live bullet simply cannot be justified,” she said.
Several hundred people, including students, chanted anti-police slogans outside Tsang’s school in the Tsuen Wan neighborhood in the New Territories.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Sitting crossed-legged, some held an arm across their chest below their left shoulder — the location of the teenager’s gunshot wound. One held a handwritten message condemning “thug police.”
Schoolmates said that Tsang loves basketball and was passionate about the pro-democracy cause.
A student who wore a Guy Fawkes mask and declined to be named said that Tsang was “like a big brother” to him and other younger students.
“During the protests, we would feel safe if he is around, because he was always the first to charge forward and would protect us when we were in danger,” the student said. “I vividly remember him saying that he would rather die than be arrested. What an awful twist of fate that it was he of all people who was shot by the police.”
Many students felt that firing at Tsang’s chest, close to his heart, was an attempt to kill him.
Police said that Tsang has been arrested, despite being hospitalized, and that authorities would decide later whether to press charges.
More than 1,000 office workers skipped their lunch to join an impromptu march in the business district against the police shooting.
Dozens of black-clad demonstrators also protested at a luxury mall in Kowloon.
Police have defended the officer’s use of force as “reasonable and lawful,” with Hong Kong Police Force Commissioner Stephen Lo (盧偉聰) late on Tuesday said that the officer had feared for his life and made “a split-second” decision to fire a single shot at close range.
Asked why the officer shot at Tsang’s chest instead of his limbs, Deputy Commissioner Tang Ping-Keung (鄧炳強) yesterday said that the officer had fired at an area that could immobilize the youth quickly.
Tang denied that police had been given permission to shoot to kill.
The officer’s action was in line with international procedures, he said, but added that police would mount an in-depth investigation into the shooting.
Hong Kong’s government said that the widespread rioting on Tuesday was “planned and organized,” and called on parents and teachers to help restrain young protesters.
British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Dominic Raab on Tuesday said that the shooting was “disproportionate” and warned that it could risk inflaming the situation.
Some US lawmakers also joined in the condemnation.
China’s liaison office in Hong Kong slammed British and US politicians, accusing them of condoning violence and crime.
“No time should be lost to stop violence, end the chaos and restore order to Hong Kong,” it said in a statement, calling the protesters the “greatest threat to Hong Kong and the common enemy of the international community.”
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