‘My son was panicking, not a bad man’: Family of mentally ill man shot dead by Hong Kong police recall the tragedy
Hong Kong Free Press
Siu has hardly slept over the past 14 days. Whenever she closes her eyes, her mind is filled with her son’s face and memories of the day that changed her family forever.
On September 15, at her rooftop apartment in North Point, she made dinner for her youngest son and his wife, washed the dishes and then took a shower. On returning to the living room, she overheard the couple talking in a bedroom.
“Don’t be scared, don’t be scared,” Siu could hear her daughter-in-law saying to her son.
A worried Siu – who asked to be identified only by her first name – lit an incense stick, and poured a cup of warm water for her son. Aged 38 and surnamed Lee, he had suffered from mental illness for at least seven years, with his mother and wife the main caregivers.
As Lee’s mother and wife both recalled to HKFP, Lee later seemed to calm down a little, pacing back and forth in the living room. After a while, Siu suggested, “Why not come here to sit and take some rest?” Lee walked over, and all of a sudden hit her in the face.
Siu, 68, fell to the floor, breaking her arm. Lee’s wife rushed to pull him away but was herself hit on the head. The wife, unable to control her 1.8 metre-tall husband, locked herself in the bedroom and called 999 in the hope Lee would be taken to hospital.
Siu hid in the bathroom before running out of the flat. Very soon, three police officers arrived, each with a baton and a shield, and she met them in the hallway outside her home.
“Just before leaving, I glanced at the living room and saw my son was still pacing there, without holding anything, no knife,” Siu told HKFP in Cantonese on Tuesday while still in hospital due to her fractured arm.
“My son suffered from schizophrenia and panic disorder… He was just in a panic [during a relapse], scared of unfamiliar people… He was very kind, not a bad person, and never hit us before,” she added.
Siu said she stayed near the front door of her home, observing the three police officers but unable to see her son clearly.
“I told the policemen my son was just too scared, with mental problems; please don’t harm him,” Siu recalled. “I was not wearing a watch… But in just two minutes [after the police arrived], a bang! A policeman had fired his gun…”
‘Guns are for villains’
Lee was shot in the chest, and pronounced dead at 10:39 pm in hospital that day. Police said he had charged at one of the officers with a 30-centimetre knife in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other, despite multiple warnings.
“Our colleagues performed calmly and firmly and obeyed the code of the police force. We affirmed the police’s use of force in this incident,” Superintendent Sin Kwok-ming told the press the following day.
Sin did not answer directly when a reporter asked him how much time elapsed before police opened fire after noticing that Lee was carrying the knife. He said police had issued multiple warnings for “over half a minute.”
On Monday, in the aftermath of the incident, Lee’s widow, father and elder brother talked to HKFP at their home while Siu was still in hospital. They asked not to be fully identified.
Lee’s widow said her husband had not been carrying any weapons before she locked herself in the bedroom. Two tenants living in the same apartment also locked themselves in their bedrooms while the incident occurred.
Lee’s father and elder brother – who were away at the time – said they could not understand why police did not try other means such as pepper spray to subdue Lee before resorting to gunfire.
“I regret calling the police… I called them to help, to send my husband to the hospital, not to kill him,” the widow told HKFP in Cantonese.
In Hong Kong, a doctor, a registered social worker, or a family member can initiate the involuntary hospitalisation of a patient if they pose a threat to themselves or others. Families often seek help from police or firefighters to take the patient to hospital.
According to his family, Lee had been actively seeking treatment. He first took psychiatric medication, later turning to injections because he sometimes forgot to take his pills. Over the past seven years, Lee had been hospitalised three or four times.
“Sometimes he was willing to get admitted. But there were one or two times – we can’t remember correctly – that he refused and lost his temper at home, shouting at us but not being violent,” the father said. “Therefore we had to call the police. They came and escorted my son to the hospital.”
Siu said she suspected her son grabbed the knife and the pair of scissors from the kitchen, which was near the front door, after he became scared on seeing the police with weapons.
“He was in a panic attack, feeling very scared already, and the policemen came, with all the weapons and the noise… he was very scared…” Siu said. “I can’t accept it. I hope to seek justice for my son.”
“Guns are for villains. My son was a patient. He was panicking, not a bad person. How can you shoot so quickly?” the weeping mother said.
“Could you tell the officials – there are many people with mental illness in Hong Kong, and please do have pity on us, do not treat ordinary people like this. It’s so horrible! Now I feel scared seeing policemen.”
HKFP first reached out to the police for comment on Tuesday but has yet to receive a response.
For the sake of public safety
Last Sunday Lee’s widow and elder brother went to police headquarters to file a complaint, and read a statement to reporters outside.
Lee’s death has sparked much online discussion, with opinion divided. While some questioned the officer’s use of firearms, others supported the action for the sake of public safety. They referred to an incident last June, when a man with a history of mental illness killed two women at a Diamond Hill Shopping mall.
One pro-establishment columnist on Tuesday called Lee “an assailant, a perpetrator, and a suspect,” adding that he had “beaten his mother to a state beyond recognition and even attempted to attack the police officers.”
Amos Cheung, a clinical psychologist and vice chair of Hong Kong Psychological Society, told HKFP that people with mental illness were no more violent than others. Instead, they were more likely to become victims of violent crimes.
Cheung said it was difficult at present to judge right and wrong in Lee’s case, but that his death served as a strong reminder to improve procedures for handling emergencies involving mentally ill people.
Cheung suggested that police gather background information after receiving a report concerning someone with a mental illness while officers were on the way to the scene. He urged officers to be better trained to deal with people with psychiatric disorders.
“The more information they gather, the more prepared they are, and can be equipped with the right gear,” Cheung said. “Police can also consider calling medics to help – in my experiences with patients, many feel scared upon seeing policemen. It would be better if other professionals are on the scene to help.”
The Hong Kong Police Force has a guide for officers to identify mentally incapacitated people and enhance communication with them. It does not provide measures to handle violent situations.
Police General Orders specify when firearms can be used but the relevant chapter is not available to the public.
Crystal Yuen, a registered social worker with the Society for Community Organization (SoCO) who has served people with mental illness for over 10 years, said better training would help both police and the people they deal with.
As well as reviewing police use of force, Yuen said there should also be a review of what support the family had received before the emergency.
Two weeks before the tragedy
Everyone in Lee’s family noticed his condition worsening around two weeks before his death.
“Recently he seemed scared, his palms were sweating, and he was always walking slowly with his head down,” Siu, Lee’s mother, said. The family suggested Lee schedule an earlier follow-up appointment with a doctor, but Lee refused.
Since his diagnosis, Lee had led a relatively independent life, according to the family. He left secondary school after Form Four and started working in the renovation sector, like his father and elder brother. A few years ago, he and his wife moved to a subdivided unit in Sham Shui Po but sometimes returned to stay in the home at North Point.
To manage his condition, he regularly visited a psychiatric doctor at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital (PYNEH) and attended the hospital for monthly injections – usually by himself.
The Hospital Authority (HA) said in response to HKFP that Lee has been receiving treatment in PYNEH since 2017. “The patient’s condition remained stable and did not have any violent behaviour record in the past,” the authority said.
Lee had worked sporadically over the past few years. “He said he felt tired during the day and sleepless at night after the injections, which made it hard for him to work. Once I went with him to see the doctor, but the doctor said that medication was the best,” Siu recalled.
Lee’s widow said a social worker had been following her husband’s case, although she did not know which organisation they came from. The last home visit the social worker made was in April or May, she said. Afterwards, Lee had said he did not need a social worker any more because “they were not helpful.”
“Lee did not want me to meet his social worker. He did not want to worry me. As long as he got his monthly injection, I respected his decision,” the widow told HKFP.
According to HA, Lee last visited a psychiatric doctor on July 19, when he was assessed as stable, and he was due to visit the doctor again in October. Lee’s last injection was two days before his death.
“When he returned home, he told me he had lost his mobile phone at the hospital,” Siu said. She recalled how Lee felt guilty because of it, beating himself up. “I tried to comfort him, saying that I would buy him a new one once he felt better…”
A trusted support network
Mental health services in Hong Kong have come under increasingly heavy strain in recent years. The average time psychiatrists in public hospitals have to spend with patients is around five minutes.
A case manager – usually a psychiatric nurse – is assigned to regularly contact and visit each outpatient. But local media outlets reported in 2021 that one case manager was responsible for around 70 cases in some districts.
SoCO social worker Yuen said case managers played a crucial role, supporting the patient’s rehabilitation in the community, communicating with their caregivers, and reporting any sign of relapse to a psychiatrists.
Due to limited manpower, some case managers request outpatients meet them in hospital instead of paying a home visit. Yuen said that was not ideal for assessing the situation.
Separately, the Social Welfare Department in 2010 established 24 Integrated Community Centres for Mental Wellness (ICCMW) across the city, providing outreach and counselling. Local media reported in 2021 that funding for these centres had not increased over the past 10 years, with a social worker serving 60 to 70 people.
Lee was not followed by the Social Welfare Department, and the HA did not respond to questions about whether Lee was followed by a social worker or case manager from the authority.
In response to enquiries from HKFP, the HA said it had increased the ratio of case managers to patients with severe mental disorders to no higher than 1:40. For the fiscal year 2024-25, the HA earmarked additional funding of around HK$127 million to enhance mental health services.
The Social Welfare Department said it would enhance the ICCMW services this year, including strengthening early identification of persons with mental health needs and early intervention.
Lee’s family said they did not even know such resources, even if they were limited, existed. “We need a suitable way to introduce the resources to families in need,” Cheung said.
Yuen said it was crucial to build a trusted support network for someone with mental illness and their family.
“It’s just like every one of us – sometimes we feel there is no hope or there is no solution, but after we talk with someone we trust, things seem better,” Yuen said. “Even if there is a crisis, the trusted professional can arrive at the scene to provide more information or help talk to the patient.”
The caregiver
After the family filed their complaint, police chief Raymond Siu said on Monday the Complaints Against Police Office would hold a “fair and just” investigation into the shooting and submit a report to the Coroner’s Court, suggesting that the court launch its enquiry into Lee’s death as soon as possible.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, the family have been fully occupied giving testimony to police, and trying to understand complex legal procedures and the role of Coroner’s Court.
“I hope to seek justice for my son… But they are the police force and we’re ordinary people, it’s difficult…” Siu said.
As reporters have visited the family’s home in a 58-year-old residential estate in North Point, Lee’s widow has been highlighting her husband’s good qualities.
“Over the past few years, it’s been more him taking care of us, not us taking care of him. He cooked for me while I was working… And just recently, he bought some gifts for his mother, a few pairs of shoes and clothes,” she said. “You kill one person, and you kill the hope of a family.”
At their home, decorations began by Lee remained unfinished.
“He told me he used blue paint because the colour made people feel comfortable, and some red paint, which made people feel warm,” Siu recalled.
| 💡If you are in need of support, please call: The Samaritans 2896 0000 (24-hour, multilingual), Suicide Prevention Centre 2382 0000 or the government mental health hotline on 18111. The Hong Kong Society of Counselling and Psychology provides a WhatsApp hotline in English and Chinese: 6218 1084. See also: HKFP’s comprehensive guide to mental health services in Hong Kong. |
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