Cop's account of fatal shooting sparks furor
By Wang Xiang |
March 4, 2010, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A POLICE officer who shot dead a restaurant security guard after a drinking binge said in court that his gun misfired, but there was an online furor over his contradictory testimony.
Li Guoqing, 45, from Sichuan Province, was charged with murder for shooting Gao Bang in the face last June when on a business trip to Yunnan Province, China News Service reported yesterday.
Li told Kunming City Intermediate People's Court he was too drunk to remember anything after 500 grams of liquor. But that didn't prevent him telling the court a detailed story of how a gang of restaurant security guards forced him to "pay protection fees," hustled him, and tried to beat him up with a shovel.
He also rejected prosecutors' claims that he took the gun from his belt holster, saying he remembered clearly that it was in his handbag and he took it out only as a bluff.
At the court hearing on Tuesday, Li said the only reasonable explanation was that the gun misfired when Gao tried to snatch it. He said it was against his nature to start a fight after he was drunk.
He said he was regretful for the victim's family's loss.
However, Li's colleagues told the court that Li was drunk and started to shout at a guard named Wang Zhao, asking him to sit with him. Wang refused and Li slapped him in the face and got into a fight with the security guards.
Gao was trying to help Wang when Li suddenly shot Gao in the face.
The case triggered public uproar online. Almost everyone who commented on the news report said they didn't believe Li and that he deserved the death penalty.
Li Guoqing, 45, from Sichuan Province, was charged with murder for shooting Gao Bang in the face last June when on a business trip to Yunnan Province, China News Service reported yesterday.
Li told Kunming City Intermediate People's Court he was too drunk to remember anything after 500 grams of liquor. But that didn't prevent him telling the court a detailed story of how a gang of restaurant security guards forced him to "pay protection fees," hustled him, and tried to beat him up with a shovel.
He also rejected prosecutors' claims that he took the gun from his belt holster, saying he remembered clearly that it was in his handbag and he took it out only as a bluff.
At the court hearing on Tuesday, Li said the only reasonable explanation was that the gun misfired when Gao tried to snatch it. He said it was against his nature to start a fight after he was drunk.
He said he was regretful for the victim's family's loss.
However, Li's colleagues told the court that Li was drunk and started to shout at a guard named Wang Zhao, asking him to sit with him. Wang refused and Li slapped him in the face and got into a fight with the security guards.
Gao was trying to help Wang when Li suddenly shot Gao in the face.
The case triggered public uproar online. Almost everyone who commented on the news report said they didn't believe Li and that he deserved the death penalty.
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