Three Judges Shot Dead at Local Court In Yongzhou, Hunan

News in brief:

The reporters learnt that in the morning of June 1st (today), a man shot dead three judges in the Lingling District Court (零陵区法院) in Yongzhou City (永州), Hunan Province, and then killed himself on the scene too. The incident has been confirmed by Hunan Supreme Court and Propaganda Department of Yongzhou city government.

The case is still under investigation and the details are unknown at the moment.

China Buzz will keep you updated.

Man commits suicide after shooting three judges dead, injuring three others in central China
Source: xinhuanet.com

YONGZHOU, Hunan, June 1 (Xinhua) — A man killed himself after shooting three judges dead and injuring another three judges in a local court office Tuesday in central China’s Hunan Province, said local authorities.

The incident happened at about 10:05 a.m. at Lingling District People’s Court in Yongzhou City, according to the authorities.

The gunman, Zhu Jun, barged into an office on the fourth floor of the court building. He shot the judges in the office before killing himself, said the authorities.

Zhu, 46, was head of the security squad of the branch post bureau of Lingling District, they said.

Around 7:30 a.m., Zhu took a submachine gun and two pistols from his subordinate after telling the lie that he would get the guns examined by the higher authorities, they said.

Zhu, who had a son, divorced his wife three years ago.

Man kills 3 judges, himself in China court
Source: The Associated Press

A man firing a small automatic weapon burst into a court office in central China on Tuesday, fatally shooting three judges and wounding three other people before killing himself, an official said.

The attacker, identified as a 46-year-old head of security at the Lingling district post office in Yongzhou in Hunan province, apparently told his co-worker he was taking the automatic weapon and two pistols for an inspection by city authorities then headed to the District People’s Court, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

He fired the gun after breaking into the office on the fourth floor, killing the three judges and wounding three court staff, said a spokesman of the city’s Communist Party propaganda department who would give only his surname, Tang.

He said the judges were discussing a case unrelated to the man.

Xinhua identified the assailant as Zhu Jun and said the man was exacting revenge on the court over a ruling it had made in a property division dispute three years ago between him and his wife, who were going through a divorce.

Zhu, who lived with his elderly parents after the divorce, felt the court’s decision was unfair, it said. The judges Zhu attacked were not involved in his earlier case, the report said.

Though private gun ownership is virtually banned in China, the country has seen a rise in violent crimes amid the free-market reforms of recent years and a loosening of social controls.

Mass violent attacks are typically rare in China but in recent months, the country has witnessed a spate of stabbings and attacks on schoolchildren by attackers wielding knives and in one case, a hammer.

The Harbin Daily reported Tuesday that a woman in her 40s attacked nine fellow passengers in sleeper compartments on an overnight train from northeastern Harbin to central Hebei province. The woman used a scrap of iron as her weapon, stabbing victims in their arms and legs around 2 a.m. Monday.

The woman, who was not identified, was then arrested by police, the report said. Her oldest victim was a 73-year-old woman.

Three of the nine victims were sent to the Jiamusi Railway Hospital, where they were treated and released, said a hospital staffer who gave her name surname as Zhang.