Society

Suspected cop killer detained

By Wang Yan and Tian Xuefei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-02 07:20

TONGJIANG, Heilongjiang - The police have detained a man suspected of shooting dead a high-ranking police officer in Tongjiang city of Heilongjiang province.

Jiamusi public security bureau officials said Liu Xiangjun, 45, was detained on Monday for allegedly shooting Sun Wei, deputy director of Tongjiang public security bureau, with an illegally acquired shotgun on Sunday evening.

Sun was found sitting in a pool of blood in the driver's seat of his car at around 7:30 pm on Sunday. The car was parked under his apartment building.

Sun was rushed to a hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead upon arrival.

"Tests by physicians showed Sun died from a gunshot to the head," the police said, adding that further investigations are under way.

Police said Liu killed Sun due to "personal resentment", but did not elaborate.

"Based on primary investigations, the suspect arrived at Sun's apartment building at around 6:30 pm on Sunday in a borrowed Passat car that didn't have license plates. An hour later, when Sun got into the police car he usually drove, Liu shot Sun in the head and fled in the Passat," the police said.

Liu is now under detention and the weapon has been recovered, police said.

Liu, a villager in Tongjiang, had been under detention several times for drug use, brawls and unlawful possession of explosives, police said.

Sun was about to be promoted to the post of political commissar of the Tongjiang public security bureau before he was shot, the Beijing News reported on Thursday.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, 1,026 police officers have died on duty from 1949 to 1980. The number was 1,413 between 1981 and 1989, 4,499 from 1990 to 2000 and 3,830 from 2001 to the first half of 2009.

CHINA DAILY