SINGAPORE: The knife-wielding man who was chance by the police right after attacking random passers-by and charging at officials pleaded guilty in order to violence offences on Tuesday (Sep 27).
Soo Cheow Wee, fifty, pleaded guilty to four charges which includes voluntarily causing harm by using a cutting instrument, criminal intimidation plus causing hurt to deter a general public servant from his duty. Another 4 charges will be regarded in sentencing.
The court noticed that Soo visited Geylang on the morning of Feb 17 and drank coughing syrup and diazepam without prescriptions.
After this, he returned to his mother’s house in Clementi. Later that day, he the police and said someone wanted to destroy him and his mother.
He then got a knife, covered it in paper and left the unit. Soo loitered together a pavement in Clementi, claiming a voice told him to randomly target members of the public.
He approached several pedestrians, swinging his knife, but most of them managed to flee. Soo cut a 41-year-old guy who was on his evening stroll, injuring their arm.
CHARGED AT POLICE OFFICERS
After this, Soo flagged down a taxi cab and asked to be driven to Clementi Police Division. On the way, he gave inconsistant instructions on where to go, and suddenly opened the rear door plus tried to alight as the taxi was nevertheless in motion.
The driver, a 61-year-old man, alighted to evaluate Soo, who got fallen on the road. He or she saw that Soo was holding the knife, and Soo pointed the tool at him just before charging towards him.
The driver after that got back into their taxi and secured the doors before driving to the entrance of Clementi Police Department to alert the police.
Soo flipped his attention on the police officers, walking toward them and yelling incoherently with the cutlery in hand. Despite the police’s orders to stop plus drop the blade, Soo continued to advance and suddenly billed towards one of the officers.
Sensing an imminent threat to the life and security of the police officers, the particular officer fired the round from their service revolver, stunning Soo, who fell down.
Soo was arrested and taken to a keeping room. His accidental injuries were not life-threatening, and was taken to hospital with a gunshot injury. He was later discharged from medical center and has been in remand since.
Upon Tuesday, Soo also admitted to an earlier incident in 2019 where he punched the face of an auxiliary police officer thrice. He do so after abusing cough syrup with no prescription. He had been trying to return to a police station this individual was just released on bail from for drug consumption offences.
LONG LIST OF CONVICTIONS THROUGH 1989
The particular court heard that will Soo had a long list of past convictions dating from 1989. Soo reoffended every other year since, receiving sentences ranging from probation to jail plus stints in medication rehabilitation centres.
These were for accidents such as theft, appearing intoxicated in public places, medication consumption, inhaling an intoxicating substance plus assault on a community servant.
His latest conviction is at 2013, when he received seven yrs and six strokes of the cane designed for drug consumption. In 2017, he had been placed under drug supervision for 24 months.
District Judge Luke Tan said he found this case to be “disturbing” for the reason that a lot of Soo’s psychiatric issues stemmed through self-induced consumption of materials. At the time of the offences, he was within self-induced psychosis from cough syrup, he said.
He or she told defence attorney Chooi Jing Yen that his customer, who was assigned in order to him under the Legal Aid System, seems to have a problem but has not addressed any of his problems despite medication.
Determine Tan cited another case, where an issue was raised about whether or not an offender that is well-behaved because of medicine in jail will still be so outside of prison.
“Look in the videos, ” stated the judge, pointing to closed-circuit television footage of the episodes. “Random people were heading about. He had a knife. He has been chasing after a few (of them)… thankfully those people were able-bodied, they could run. ”
“Think about it – if it was a weak older individual, or even a handicapped person who had been there, not so cellular, what would have happened? ”
Assess Tan added: “If you know you have a problem, (but) you don’t address it, it becomes an issue for you and everybody. So what do you do about this? ”
He or she called for a report evaluating Soo’s suitability for corrective training plus adjourned the case. Corrective training is a prison regime for repeat offenders without the typical one-third remission for good behaviour.