Man who stabbed four at hospital gets death sentence

Cui Zhenguo, who hurt four people at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital with a knife last January, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and deprived of political rights for life for intentional homicide on Tuesday.

According to Beijing No 3 Intermediate People's Court, Cui was resentful of ophthalmologist Tao Yong and other doctors at the hospital because his eye treatment failed to meet his expectations. Then he took retaliatory action on Jan 20, 2020.

He used a knife to attack the back of Tao's head and the doctor's neck, and then chased after Tao to slash him. During the process, Cui wounded Tao’s arm and the three other people who tried to stop him.

The court said that Cui had intended to illegally deprive others of their lives. He intentionally hacked at the vital parts of other people with a knife, causing a serious injury to one person, minor injuries to another, and slight bodily injuries to two others, which had constituted the crime of intentional homicide.

It said that the case was an attempted murder, and Cui asked others to call the police and waited at the scene after committing the crime, which can be regarded as giving himself up.

However, as Cui used cruel means to chase and slash at victims in a public medical place, resulting in serious consequences and extremely bad social impact, the court did not consider it sufficient to give him a lenient sentence.

Tao is a senior ophthalmologist at Chaoyang Hospital. He has returned to work but would never be able to carry out any eye surgeries again due to the injury to his arm.