Tsui Po-ko () (17 May 1970 – 17 March 2006) was a Police Constable of the Hong Kong Police Force, bank robber and serial killer. He is one of Hong Kong's most known serial killers.
He was killed during an ambush on two Police Constables in a Tsim Sha Tsui subway which led to a shootout. 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. 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. 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", while Coroner Michael Chan Pik-kiu called it "the most difficult" inquest for a jury he had ever encountered.
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 Secondary Technical School (now Kwun Tong Kung Lok Government Secondary School). After graduation, he had several jobs, including a stint 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. He was an outstanding cadet at the Hong Kong Police College, having won the "silver whistle".
Tsui was an excellent marksman, scoring full marks in target shooting and simulated bank robbery shooting in 1993. From 2001 to 2005, in the tests held three times a year, he scored a perfect 48 points. According to shooting range records, Tsui was a left-handed shooter but had also claimed that he was ambidextrous to a superior.
From 1996 to 2001, Tsui made four attempts at the 'Police Constable/Senior Police Constable to Sergeant Promotion Qualifying Examination', He scored 68 marks in his 2000 attempt which earned him an interview, but his stubbornness and difficulty in communication meant that he was never promoted, and had given up applying for promotion by 1999. From then on until 2003, Tsui applied three times to join the Airport Security Unit, but failed in every attempt. 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, worked 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 had a daughter in 2000.
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 stated that they would donate some of the money to charity.
Tsui was an avid sportsman and Oxfam Trailwalker, and was known to participate in marathons and paragliding. Unbeknownst to his wife, he would also frequent massage parlours, karaoke bars, and prostitutes in Mong Kok and Shenzhen. Tsui was a habitual heavy gambler and 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.
Murder of Police Constable Leung Shing-yan
In March 2001, Tsui murdered constable Leung Shing-yan () and stole his revolver. The 24-year-old Leung, who was engaged, had been on the force for five years.
At 12:05 on 14 March 2001, the Lei Muk Shue Police Station received a call regarding a noise complaint from a flat at Shek Wai Kok Estate. Leung responded to the call alone as his partner was still having lunch. 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. He was subsequently attacked, struggling with his assailant to prevent his revolver being snatched, but was shot five times at close range. Leung took three bullets in the head and two in the back at Flat 552, Shek To House Block B. Under police guard, paramedics wearing bulletproof vests rushed Leung to Yan Chai Hospital where he was declared deceased upon arrival. His revolver, a fully loaded Smith & Wesson Model 10 4 Inch heavy barrel type revolver, a speedloader, loaded with six "Calibre 38Spl" bullets were missing.