Tear gas shot into flat: Clinic and flat burnt down, doctor family plans to sue the police for $2 million
BeWaterTear gas shot into flat: Clinic and flat burnt down, doctor family plans to sue the police for $2 million
On the morning of 18 November 2019, the second day of the Poly U siege, the police fired tear gas to disperse the citizens in the vicinity of Chatham Road, Tsimshatsui. One tear gas was shot into Mrs Leung’s flat in the 1st floor of Windsor Mansions, Austin Road. Her husband is a physician whose clinic is set up in the connected unit of the flat. Mrs Leung recalled that only her helper was present during the accident. She was cleaning at that time, and she discovered that the flat was on fire after hearing the sound of the gunshot. She then escaped from the flat barefoot. Half of the flat was burnt in the incident, and dense dark clouds were rising from the flat. Firemen later arrived to put out the fire, and luckily there was no casualty. The tear gas was fired into her daughter’s room, and it was pure luck that her daughter left home 5 minutes before the accident, so that the room was vacant when the fire started - or else the consequences would be disastrous.
Mrs Leung said that all electronic appliancesin her home and her husbands’ medical equipmentwere wetin the fire. Her husband was also worried that the medications in the clinic were contaminatedby the tear gas and destroyed all of them. The preliminary estimation of loss is more than $2 million.
More than two months after the incident, Mrs Leung went back to inspect her home recently. They moved out since 18 November when the tear gas was shot into their flat. The bullet head of tear gas was found in the flat, and the two units were a mess. The debris of burnt furniture and sundries remained. The floor is covered with broken glass, and the walls and ceiling were also blackened. The ground was full of broken glass. There was still a lingering pungent smell of tear gas in the flat.
Lawyers were contacted at this stage. Regarding the losses caused by the tear gas to the flat and the connected clinic, she planned to claim against the police through civil litigation. Since the incident, the family of five could not go back home, and now live in a unit let by a friend/relative. The flat will not be cleaned in the meantime, to preserve the state of the unit and avoid impacting the litigation. Her husband, the breadwinner of the family, has to close down the clinic indefinitely due to this incident, and this greatly affected his income. Mrs Leung is now the only one working to support the family. “We have three children, two of them are still studying and one is in the UK, so we are actually quite tight, and I am the one supporting the family for now.”
“At first I couldn’t believe that tear gas will explodelike this, that there would be fire,” in face of the sudden misfortune, apart from monetary loss, Mrs Leung said that the whole family was still in a state of panic and depressed mood, including the helper who witnessed the fire at home that time. Apart from psychological impact, Mrs Leung is also very worried about the harms of tear gas residue. “The helper is still coughing from the first day of contact (with tear gas) till now, and is consulting a doctor.” Mrs Leung rebuked the police for firing tear gas near residential areasandblatantly disregard the safety of residents.
She disclosed that there were riot police arriving at the scene on the day of the incident, and the police have dispatched CID to the unit afterwards, claiming that they wanted to “come in and look at the tear gas,” but Mrs Leung refused the police’ request to take away evidence. “I think that they do not have the right to come in for now, we need to obtain legal advice”
She went on to say that loss adjuster was contacted to evaluate the loss, but a full report would take around one month. “We are not trying to see who did wrong, maybe it was an accident, nevertheless, we hope that we can get the compensation we deserve and have justice.”
Apple Daily made an enquiry to the police in relation to the civil litigation cases taken by citizens against them in relation damage resulted from tear gas over the past 6 months. There was no reply to date.
Excerpt: Apple Daily
#PoliceState #PoliceBrutality #PolyUSeige #Teargas