1. Biography
    First murder  Bank robbery  Financial irregularities  Subway ambush 

2. Mental state

3. Legacy

4. References

Tsui Po-ko ({{zh|c=徐步高}}) (17 May 1970 – 17 March 2006) was a police constable in the Hong Kong Police Force who was implicated in a number of crimes, including bank robbery and murder.

He died when he and another police constable shot each other in a gun battle in a Tsim Sha Tsui subway. The inquest into the events leading up to his death aroused great interest in Hong Kong, as it unravelled a string of intriguing events, and revealed the secret life of a policeman with a delusional state of mind.^[1]

On 25 April 2007, the five-person jury in the Coroner's court unanimously decided that Tsui was responsible for injuring one and killing two fellow police officers and a bank security guard, on three separate occasions. The jury returned a verdict that he had been "lawfully killed" by fellow officer Tsang Kwok-hang in a shootout.^[2] The inquest lasted 36 days, one of the longest ever inquests in Hong Kong.

Assistant Police Commissioner John Lee said that this was "an exceptional case".^[3] Coroner Michael Chan Pik-kiu called it "the most difficult" inquest for a jury he had ever encountered.^[3]

Biography

Tsui was the elder of two children born in Shaowu, Fujian, and arrived in Hong Kong in 1978 with his mother. His father and brother arrived a year later. He attended the Kwun Tong Government Industrial Secondary School (now Kwun Tong Kung Lok Government Secondary School). After graduation, he had several jobs, including a spell with the Royal Hong Kong Regiment.

Tsui joined the Royal Hong Kong Police in 1993; he regarded it as a well paid job with good benefits, and was a police constable for 13 years until his death in 2006.^[4] He was an outstanding cadet at the Hong Kong Police College, having won the "silver whistle".^[5]

Tsui was an excellent marksman. In 1993, he scored full marks in target shooting as well as simulated bank robbery shooting. From 2001 to 2005, in the tests held three times a year, he would score a faultless 48 points. According to shooting range records, he been trained to shoot left-handed. He had once claimed to a superior that he was ambidextrous.^[6]

From 1996 to 2001, Tsui made four attempts at the 'Police Constable/Senior Police Constable to Sergeant Promotion Qualifying Examination',^[7] He scored 68 marks in his 2000 attempt, earning him an interview.^[8] His stubbornness and difficulty in communication meant that he was never promoted.^[5] However, since 1999, he had given up applying for promotion. From then on until 2003, Tsui applied three times to join the Airport Security Unit, but failed. He failed a personality assessment during the first attempt, and subsequently failed because of insufficient fitness. Between 2002 and 2005, he was attached to the Tsing Yi district.

Tsui's wife, Lee Po-ling, works at the Social Welfare Department as a social security assistant. The couple met when she worked as a sales assistant at the airport, and Tsui was also stationed there. They married in 1997 and they had a daughter in 2000.^[9]

In October 2001, Tsui and his wife appeared together in a couples version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on ATV and won HK$60,000, and they claimed they would donate some of the money to charity.^[10]

Tsui, who was an avid sportsman, was an Oxfam Trailwalker, participated in marathons, and also liked paragliding. Unbeknownst to his wife, he would go to Mong Kok and Shenzhen weekly to frequent massage parlours, karaoke bars, and prostitutes.^[11] Also a habitual heavy gambler, Tsui was known to have made a HK$75,000 wager on Japan to win the 2004 Asian Cup final at odds of 2.8:1 on 7 August 2004.^[12]

First murder

Tsui was found responsible for murdering constable Leung Shing-yan ({{zh|c=梁成恩}}) and stealing his revolver in March 2001.^[3] The 24-year-old Leung, who was engaged, had been on the force for five years.^[13][17]

At 12:05 on 14 March 2001, the Lei Muk Shue Police Station received a call from an unknown man who complained of excessive noise coming from a flat at Shek Wai Kok Estate. Leung responded to the call alone as his partner was still having lunch.^[14] His final radio call was received at 12:25 when he reported that he had arrived at the flat and nobody was responding to his knocks.^[14] He was subsequently attacked, struggling with his assailant to prevent his revolver being snatched, but was shot five times at close range.^[13][15] Leung took three bullets in the head and two in the back at Flat 552, Shek To House Block B.^[5] Under police guard, paramedics wearing bulletproof vests rushed Leung to Yan Chai Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.^[14] His revolver, a fully loaded Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolver, a speedloader, and one extra clip of six bullets were missing.^[13]

The noise complaint was apparently bogus, and was made from an untraceable mobile phone. The police suspected that the officer was lured to the scene for his gun.^[13] Heavily armed police locked down the building and mounted a search.^[14] Some 3,000 people, of which 2,000 police officers, were interviewed by the police, yet the perpetrator escaped detection.^[16] Later, forensic tests found that the DNA on a mask left at the crime scene matched Tsui's.^[17]

PC Leung was survived by his parents and a younger brother and sister.^[13] His wedding was to have been held in May. His funeral in Hung Hom was attended by top officials including Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa and Police Commissioner Tsang Yam-pui. Leung was buried at Gallant Garden.^[18] In 2002, he was posthumously awarded the Medal for Bravery (Silver) in recognition of his courage and "gallantry of an extremely high order".^[15][32]

Bank robbery

On 5 December 2001, Tsui planned and carried out armed bank robbery of the Hang Seng Bank branch at Belvedere Garden in Tsuen Wan, in which about HK$500,000 was stolen, and a Pakistani security guard was killed.^[5]

At 12:10, a lone masked robber burst into the bank. Watchman Zafar Iqbal Khan, aged 31, struggled with the man. He was shot three times, in the head, body and wrist, and died instantly.^[19][35] The assailant jumped over the counter and snatched money, fleeing with HK$490,000 as well as US$1,000.^[19] He fled onto Castle Peak Road and then into the Belvedere Garden shopping arcade, escaping through another exit. Police evacuated the shopping centre and launched a manhunt but failed to catch the robber.^[19]

The police located several domestic helpers who witnessed the robber removing his balaclava following the crime. With their help the police produced a facial composite image of the suspect that was distributed to frontline officers.^[20]

The perpetrator was described as a man with short hair and about 1.8 m tall, whom Assistant Police Commissioner Yam described as a "calm, cold-blooded and brutal robber". A HK$2 million reward was issued.^[21] Immediately following the robbery the police noted that the murder weapon appeared to be a police service revolver.^[19]

Later on, it was revealed that Tsui matched the description of the perpetrator as captured on closed circuit television; key pieces of evidence were a red T-shirt, Mizuno brand shoes^[5] and the fact that footage showed the killer to be a left-handed gunman. He was placed near the scene by the police: Tsui boarded a bus from Yat Tung Estate in Tung Chung at 11:11 using the Octopus card issued to his wife; it was clocked in a minibus heading to Tsuen Wan at 11:53.^[22]

A red T-shirt carrying a similar distinctive logo as captured on CCTV was found at Tsui's home after his death. The T-shirt, bearing the logo of the Yinchuan International Motor-cycle Travel Festival was a gift to Tsui by the club secretary during his visit to the show in 2000. An expert witness identified the T-shirt as having been worn inside-out during the robbery.^[23] Ballistics identified the gun used in the robbery as having been a police service revolver taken from murdered police officer Leung Shing-yan.^[5]

Zafar Iqbal Khan was a father of four who lived with his brothers in Kwai Chung. His wife and children lived in Pakistan.^[19] During the robbery he cocked his Remington shotgun after being shot twice but did not have a chance to fire his weapon before being killed.^[24] A ceremony, attended by his relatives, friends, and bank chairman Vincent Cheng, was held at the Kowloon Mosque on 7 December before his body was returned to Pakistan later in the day.^[24] Khan was posthumously awarded the Medal for Bravery (Gold) for "selfless bravery of the highest order", which was accepted on his behalf by his wife.^[15][25][26]

Financial irregularities

An investigation by the Criminal Intelligence Bureau into Tsui's financial status from January 2000 to March 2006 revealed he had a total of 19 personal banking and investment accounts hidden from his wife. Total assets were HK$2,977,513.^[27] Seven personal and 12 investment accounts were opened under his name around mid-February in 2002, using a friend's address. Between February 2002 and October 2004, Tsui deposited HK$557,718 into the 19 accounts which could not be accounted for. All transactions were in cash.^[27] It was reported that Tsui was active in foreign exchange market, commodities, securities, funds, and margin trading, and had lost a total of HK$371,982 in those investments.^[27]

Tsui and his wife bought one flat in August 1997, and paid HK$574,800 in cash.^[27] Two years later, he bought a flat at Tung Chung Crescent with a HK$396,173 down payment, paying monthly instalments of HK$17,778 for a first and a second mortgage. The mortgages were paid off in just five years, HK$388,151 in 2001 and HK$500,000 in 2004.^[27]

The police alleged that the transactions were inconsistent with a constable's salary, and that the HK$500,000 unexplained cash would be consistent with the bank's loss during the heist in 2001.^[27]

Subway ambush

Tsui was also responsible for ambushing two police officers in a Tsim Sha Tsui pedestrian subway, triggering a shoot-out on 17 March 2006.^[3]

28-year-old Constable Sin Ka-keung ({{zh|c=冼家強}}), survivor of the shoot-out, said that he and 33-year-old Constable Tsang Kwok-hang ({{zh|c=曾國恒}}) were ambushed in the underpass at the junction of Austin and Canton Roads. PC Sin had seen a man lurking on the northern stairs of the subway & attemped to confront him before he was shot in the face. The attacker then proceeded to shoot PC Tsang. PC Tsang was shot in the head, while PC Sin sustained gunshot wounds in the face and leg. Upon doing so, PC Sin got up and attemped to draw his pistol. The attacker then tried to snatch his revolver.^[5] Tsui had started the exchange. PC Sin returned two shots, but missed.^[28] PC Sin then grappled with the man and fired two shots before both of them slumped to the floor. ^[5] PC Tsang was able to get up & shoot Tsui five times in the torso killing him before he later succumbed to his own wounds.

The police confirmed that the rusty revolver found beside Tsui's body to be the gun stolen from the late PC Leung in 2001.^[16]

PC Sin was later awarded the Medal for Bravery (Gold) for his actions and later would write a book about his experience.^[29][30]

Mental state

As the inquiry continued, Tsui was found to be an ambitious officer who often topped his class and did well in assessment tests. However, he was often denied promotions or opportunities to join elite units, such as the Airport Security Unit.^[31]

He was not media shy, as was demonstrated by his appearance on a television game show. He was happily photographed when he won the chance to buy his flat in a draw. He was again happy to be photographed during the democracy rally on 1 July 2004 dressed in traditional Chinese funeral style ("披麻戴孝").^[32]

An associate professor of social science at the City University of Hong Kong suggested that Tsui, like many criminals, did not know how to face frustration, and chose instead to take an illegal path in obtaining socially approved goals, such as money, prestige or recognition. It was suggested that the police force paid more attention to talented officers who fail to gain promotion, and recommended that there should be independent and confidential psychological counselling services for such troubled or frustrated officers.^[3]

A Federal Bureau of Investigation criminal profiler believed that Tsui's behaviour fit into most of the definitions of schizotypal personality disorder, while an expert from the Queensland University of Technology said Tsui's personality profile matched that of a serial killer who believed he was destined to change the world, probably tried to rise above his self-perceived unremarkable life by playing God, by taking lives.^[5]

Legacy

The Tsui Po-ko case has inspired some film and television productions, including:

• Anatomy of a Crime: "HK's Rogue Cop"^[33][34]

• Mad Detective, a 2007 film
• A Great Way to Care 《仁心解碼》, a 2009 TVB series
• The Men of Justice, a 2010 ATV series^[35]
• Shades of Rogue, a 2014 short film

References

• Government budget constraint
• Government budget deficit
• Government budget deficits
• Government budget (Scotland)
• Government budget surplus
• Government Buildings, Dublin
• Government Buildings (Former)
• Government Bullies
• Government by Journalism
• Government by the People Act
• Government campaign to impose episcopalianism upon Scotland
• Government Canyon
• Government Canyon bat cave spider
• Government center
• Government Center Downtown Bus Terminal
• Government Center, Massachusetts
• Government Center (MDT station)
• Government Center, Miami
• Government Center, Miami, FL
• Government Center, Newark, New Jersey
• Government Center station
• Government Center station (Boston)
• Government Center station (GRTC)
• Government Center Tower (San Salvador)
• Government Centre Transit Centre