1 July police stabbing

1 July police stabbing
Part of Hong Kong–Mainland China conflict
Stabbed police officer lying on the ground and receiving first aid
Location	Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Date	1 July 2021 (2021-07-01) ~22:10 (UTC+08:00)
Target	Police officer on duty
Attack type	Suicide attack
Weapon	Knife
Deaths	1
Injured	1
Perpetrator	Leung Kin-fai

A suicide attack took place at approximately 22:10 on 1 July 2021, in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. 50-year-old Leung Kin-fai^[1][2] approached a Police Tactical Unit police officer from behind and stabbed him, injuring the officer's scapula and piercing his lung,^[3] before Leung committed suicide by stabbing his own heart. Leung was immediately subdued by surrounding police, arrested and sent to hospital. He died at 23:20.^[4][5][6]

The stabbed police officer, Wai Ming underwent seven hours of surgery in the emergency room while his family was told they needed to prepare themselves for the worst. Constable Wai survived and learned two days after the attack, that his attacker had already committed suicide. In the aftermath, Wai said he will never forgive someone who believe they can "evade responsibility" by committing suicide and stated that, "this conveys a very wrong message to society, that one can conclude matters by ending one's own life after doing bad things. Violence cannot solve a problem. Violence is never a solution. These are my words to him.'^[7]

That the attack targeted a police officer, and that it occurred on the anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong in 1997 – a public holiday in Hong Kong – , was making the attack particularly shocking according to observers.^[8] Suspected motives of the perpetrator include dissatisfaction with Hong Kong police allegedly sheltering criminals, and opposition to the implementation of the Hong Kong national security law and its ramifications on the course of democratic development in Hong Kong.^[2] The Hong Kong government characterised the attack as an act of terrorism.^[9]

Some Hong Kong netizens called Leung a "martyr" and "brave". Some citizens went to the attack site to lay flowers^[10] and bow.^[11][12] A motion on 7 July of student union members at the University of Hong Kong which praised the "sacrifice" of the attacker was withdrawn two days later, after strong condemnations by the government and the university.^[13] With student union leaders promptly resigning, the government nevertheless advocated for action by the university and possibly legal action by police.^[14] Student union offices were searched on 16 July and four students who had participated in the meeting were arrested on national security charges on 18 August.^[15]

Police strongly condemned the mourning and stated that encouraging such memorials of Leung was "no different from supporting terrorism".^[10] While it did not declare the laying of flowers to mourn the attacker to be illegal, a national security police officer said on 6 July that it did not recommend "these so-called mourning rituals".^[16] The Hong Kong Police issued a public statement and said that people should not be glorifying a "murderer" and his actions and said,

The police noticed that after the incident, some people on the Internet continued to advocate different ways to mourn the murderer who failed the murder. Some parents even brought buckets of young children to mourn, intending to beautify, romanticize, heroize and even rationalize the murderer's cold-blooded act of attempting to kill. Advocating mourning the murderer is tantamount to supporting terrorism and inciting more hatred and division. In the end, it will only undermine social order, endanger public safety, and threaten every Hong Kong citizen.^[17]