Police have announced that they are offering a reward of HK$800,000 (more than US$102,000) for information leading to the capture of the person who threw brick that killed 70-year-old cleaner Law Cheung Ching during a clash in Sheung Shui last month.
The amount of the reward is the highest — by far — of the all the rewards currently being offered for wanted suspects, according to the police’s website, with the force classifying the case as a murder in a statement on Tuesday.
https://www.facebook.com/HongKongPoliceForce/posts/2819974331423846
Law, a contract cleaner for the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department, was hit with a brick after being caught up in a clash between pro-democracy protesters and their pro-Beijing opponents on Nov. 13 during a spate of intense protests that swept the city following the death of a protester who suffered a brain injury in a fall.
Video of the incident appears to show Law standing to one side as protesters and the pro-Beijing crowd brawl, when out of a nowhere a brick strikes him in the head as both sides hurl projectiles.
The blow appeared to immediately knock Law unconscious, and he was taken to Prince Edward Hospital for treatment, but his condition continued to worsen and he was pronounced dead the following night.
News of Law’s death — as with seemingly all things related to the ongoing protest movement — proved polarizing, with the government and its allies online calling for justice to be done, and blaming protesters for their escalating tactics.
“We can’t let this man die without finding out what happened!” one commenter said. “We must find the murderer!”
Others, however, defended the protesters, and with unsubstantiated rumors swirling of protesters being killed by police, some also wondered aloud why suspicious deaths among members of the protest camp weren’t pursued with equal zeal.
“Every day, corpses are discovered lying on streets and floating in the sea, where are the reward offers for those cases?” one netizen asked.
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