CLIFFORD LO CLIFFORD.LO@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 21 October, 2015, 12:37pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 21 October, 2015, 12:55pm
The suspect was hooded and chained. Photo: Felix Wong
Two men wanted by Hong Kong police in connection with the death of a mainland Chinese tourist could be mainland tour guides who may have already skipped town and crossed the border, a police source said.
The two are among a group of four men who allegedly dragged the tourist out of a jewellery shop on Monday before beating him unconscious when he tried to mediate in a dispute – and police fear they may have gone back to the mainland.
“The two men [who are at large] may be tour group leaders from the mainland,” the police source said. “It is possible they have left the city.”
Hours after the attack on Monday, police arrested two other men in connection with the case, which was classed as manslaughter after victim Miao Chunqi, 54, died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital yesterday.
This morning, one of those men was taken to the crime scene by police to stage a reconstruction. Hooded, chained and wearing a black T-shirt and trousers, the man was brought to Man Lok Street, Hung Hom, where police used a blow-up dummy to reenact the alleged crime and filmed the reconstruction.
The reconstruction began at about 11am after scores of police officers were deployed to cordon off a section of the street.
The suspect was held on a metal chain leash by a plain-clothes officer after stepping out from an unmarked police van.
He was questioned briefly on the pavement before being taken into the D2 Jewellery shop, where Miao was allegedly grabbed by the gang of four men, dragged out and then beaten unconscious.
After staying for about 10 minutes inside the shop, officers took the suspect to the entrance of an adjacent car park. As two officers held the dummy at the car park entrance, the suspect staged a series of kicks.
The reconstruction lasted for about half an hour before the suspect was driven back to Kowloon City police station. Around noon, the two arrested men were still being held for questioning and had not been charged.
Miao and his female colleague, Zhang Lixia, 53, were among a group of 19 mainland tourists who arrived from Shenzhen on Sunday.
On Monday, the group was taken to the jewellery shop after visiting Wong Tai Sin Temple.
A dispute erupted in the shop when Zhang did not want to make a purchase and had an argument with the female tour group leader – Deng Haiyan, 32. The pair allegedly fought each other during the dispute.
Miao might have been beaten because the dispute could have affected other tourists making purchases in the shop, the source said.
Police arrested Miao’s colleague and the female group leader, 32, on suspicion of fighting in a public place. The two were still being held for questioning.
According to Harbin-based newspaper Xin Wan Bao, Miao’s wife, surnamed Zhang, said he had no illness and had been healthy, so it was not possible for him to die suddenly of a disease.
An emotional Zhang told the paper that Miao worked at a municipal engineering company in Harbin and had recently been working on a project in Hainan. She said Miao returned to Harbin during the National Day holidays and attended a family member’s wedding, before going back to Hainan.
“My husband had been very healthy. He had no diseases,” she said.
Zhang said the woman joining the tour group with Miao was his colleague in Hainan and they signed up for the tour in Shenzhen. She said after the beating, staff from a Shenzhen travel agency asked her about Miao’s health condition, told her about the beating and urged her to go to Shenzhen immediately.
Additional reporting by Shirley Zhao
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1870298/two-men-wanted-over-mainland-chinese-tourists-death-may
