A teenager, who allegedly incited four friends to murder another man, attempted to surrender to Beijing police Monday morning, but was sent away after the officers said it would cause too much trouble.
Huang Guifu, 18, went to Dongjiaominxiang Police Station in Dongcheng district to turn himself in after fleeing from his home in Dazhu county, Sichuan Province, the Beijing Times reported Wednesday.
Huang was arrested Monday afternoon by Chaoyang police, after he used his ID card at an Internet café in Sihui.
Huang allegedly gathered four friends in a restaurant to teach the victim a lesson on July 24. The victim and Huang had previously had conflicts with each other.
While Huang did not participate in the attack, his four associates stabbed the victim in the back six times. One of the four struck the fatal blow to the victim’s neck, Huang’s friend, Zhou Guochun told the Beijing Times Tuesday. Zhou works in Beijing, and accompanied Huang to the police station Monday.
A police officer checked Huang’s ID card but dismissed them as “the case happened in Sichuan, it’s too much trouble to transfer the suspect from Beijing,” Zhou told the Beijing Times. The officer even suggested he should surrender to a police station in Sihui, Chaoyang district, where Zhou lives.
“Huang entered the police station, but police let him go, so the police should be responsible for the result,” Zhou reportedly said. Zhou could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
“Police behavior in this case was a bigger problem than the suspect’s surrender confirmation,” lawyer Tian Yangang with Beijing Lüli Law Firm said.
“The policeman’s dereliction of duty was more important, as he shouldn’t release a suspect due to an administrative territory reason. A policeman has to deal with every case seriously, big or small,” Tian said.
Dongcheng police told the Beijing Times that the men only asked for advice about a fight case in Sichuan, but did not mention Huang wanted to surrender. Police encouraged them to report to their local police station, and the pair left.
A police officer surnamed Huang with Dazhu County Public Security Bureau confirmed that a man was murdered, and Dazhu police came to Beijing to transfer a suspect.
Huang was on the run for 15 days, before deciding to turn himself in. He first fled to Jinjiang, Fujian Province and then Nanchong, Sichuan Province where he had worked. He arrived in Beijing Sunday.
He brought a notebook with him to record his thoughts. “I’ll arrive in Beijing soon, and I don’t have much time left. The beautiful scenery will remind me of old times. All the things in the past are gone, please keep calm,” Huang wrote, the Beijing Times reported.
Huang told Zhou that he would confess to the police, in a bid for a better future after he gets out of prison.
Lawyer Tian said that if suspects surrender voluntarily, this will be taken into consideration at trial. In Huang’s case, the court will still consider that he attempted to give himself up.
“If the surrender attempt is true, the judge will consider it, but it probably won’t affect the verdict too much,” Tian noted.
Global Times