The Story of the Mother and the Son

Just after 1 am on Saturday, 17 March, 2006, a gun battle broke out in a Tsim Sha Tsui underpass in which two uniformed police officers were ambushed by a man. One police officer was seriously injured and the other was shot dead. Before the police officer died, he returned fire and shot the man, killing him at the scene. The man was later found to be an off-duty police constable, named Tsui Po-ko (徐步高). Subsequent investigations further linked Tsui to a killing of another on-duty police officer in March, 2001, in which the police officer went to investigate a fake noise complaint in a housing estate in Tsuen Wan, but was ambushed and shot dead. His police revolver was stolen during the incidence. Tsui was also linked to a killing of a Pakistani security guard during an armed robbery of the Hang Seng Bank in Tsuen Wan by a masked gunman in December 2001. Both shootings in the bank robbery in December, 2001 and in the gun battle in March, 2006 were from a gun which was identified to be the stolen revolver from the killed police officer in the March, 2001 incidence. Absolutely nothing was known to be related to Tsui until he was shot dead. Before Tsui's death, he was seen as an ordinary person in the family. an outstanding police cadet and an excellent shooter, and performed well in the police force. After he died, he was dubbed as a 'devil cop' by the media. This episode created a tremendous media coverage at that time, and had aroused an enormous attention, shock and interest to the general public in the Hong Kong community.
One year later, an inquest was made in the Coroner's Court to examine the whole case. During the 2-month hearing which started in February, 2007, we saw everyday vividly from the TV a middle-aged woman, wearing a backpack and all alone by herself. She persistently went to the the court from start till finish. We saw the woman being chased by the media before and after the hearing each day. The woman didn't say a word but just walked quickly away from the media. The woman was Tsui's mother.
Day after day, the mother tirelessly went to the hearing, just wanted to know something she didn't want to know. As the truth continued to unfold, the mother came to know more and more about her son, and what he had done, which was so different in contrast to the son she used to know. At the end of the inquest, the court ruled that Tsui unlawfully killed the two police officers and the Pakistani security guard, and he was lawfully killed by the police officer as result of self defence. At this time, we saw the mother coming out from the court, making brief statements in front of the camera slowly in a low voice, "I feel sorry for what had happened. It's very painful for me to accept because I believe my son was very very good. I hope to put the pain behind, and live life in a strong manner from now on." As we saw the mother reading out the statements word by word, we could feel how much pain the mother had gone through in learning and accepting what had happened. We could imagine how difficult it was for the mother to face all the comments and criticisms from the media, friends, relatives and neighbours over the year. And yet we could see a MOTHER still able to bravely and firmly say to the whole world,

"He's my SON, my very good boy."

I think the scene had deeply moved everyone including the media. The media stopped all the stories ever since then, to leave the mother alone to recover and to resume her normal life (if there could be a such one again).