Anne Anne Kindergarten stabbing
| Anne Anne Kindergarten stabbing | |
|---|---|
| Location | Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong |
| Date | June 3, 1982 1:30 p.m. |
Attack type | Mass murder |
| Weapons | Two knives Two chisels |
| Deaths | 6 |
| Injured | 38 (including the perpetrator) |
| Perpetrator | Lee Chi Hang |
The Anne Anne Kindergarten stabbing was a mass murder that occurred in a kindergarten at Sham Shui Po, a district of Hong Kong, on June 3, 1982. After killing his mother and sister, and also wounding two other women, 28-year-old Lee Chi Hang (Chinese: 李志衡) entered the kindergarten and stabbed 34 children, four of them fatally, and also injured several other people, before he was arrested by police. Lee was found to be insane and has been held in a mental institution ever since.[1]
The stabbing spree
At around 1:30 p.m., Lee stabbed his mother and sister in their apartment on the twelfth floor of a building of the Un Chau Street Estate; they later died in a hospital. Armed with two knives with 8-inch blades and two chisels, Lee then ran downstairs and fled to the Anne Anne Kindergarten (安安幼稚園), stabbing two other women on his way. He entered the kindergarten, where 60 children between 3 and 4 years of age were having a singing lesson, and immediately began slashing and stabbing the children, leaving 34 of them wounded, six of them with their arms nearly severed,[2] and four with fatal injuries. When two police officers arrived at the scene, Lee fled to the playground, where he stabbed constable Chan Kin Ming in the chest. Ignoring the injured policeman's orders to drop his weapons, Lee continued stabbing at passers-by, and wounded two men, a woman, and a 14-year-old boy, before Chan stopped him with a shot to the left arm and stomach.[3][4][5][6]
Victims
Killed
- Leung Lai Kuen (梁麗娟), 48, Lee's mother
- Lee Shiu Kam (李少芹), 17, Lee's sister
- Unnamed boy, 3
- Three other unnamed children
Wounded
- Two unnamed women
- 30 unnamed children, ages 3 and 4
- Constable Chan Kin Ming
- Two unnamed men
- Unnamed woman
- Unnamed boy, 14
The perpetrator
Lee, who was diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia, was the son of Lee Wing Chiu and Leung Lai Kuen. According to his father, he was a silent boy who did poorly in school, showed strange behaviour, and spoke incoherently. In 1976, he was admitted to Castle Peak Hospital, a mental institution, for six months, after fighting with a neighbour.[2] Lee frequently suffered from depression and threatened to kill his parents during an argument on New Year's Eve of 1979. In the time prior to the stabbing, he was unemployed and was said to have appeared emotionally unstable.[3]
Aftermath
After the stabbing security measures at nursery schools were upgraded, and it was made compulsory for discharged patients of mental institutions to regularly attend psychiatric out-patient clinics.
Lee was charged with six counts of murder,[3] and in April 1983 he was sentenced to be detained in a mental hospital for an unspecified period.[7] As of January 1998 he was still being held at the Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre in Tuen Mun.[2]
In popular culture
The 1986 film The Lunatics by Derek Yee is based on the incident.
References
- ^ Man goes wild; 4 die, Wilmington Morning Star (June 4, 1982)
- ^ a b c Care versus caution, The Standard (January 18, 1998)
- ^ a b c Running Amok, Asiaweek (June 18, 1982)
- ^ Man kills three, wounds 39 in knife-slashing rampage, Eugene Register-Guard (June 3, 1982)
- ^ Mad man's swathe of terror, New Straits Times (June 4, 1982)
- ^ Amok kills 4, hurts 42, New Straits Times (June 5, 1982)
- ^ 1 dead, 17 injured in nursery attack Kindergarten gatekeeper detained after stabbings in Beijing, South China Morning Post (August 5, 2004)