Court told Chow Tsz-lok’s fall could be an accident

The Coroner’s Court probe into the death of University of Science and Technology student Chow Tsz-lok has heard from an expert suggesting that Chow may have fallen to his death accidentally, rather than being attacked and thrown off the wall.

Chow, 22, died from brain injuries four days after he fell from the third to the second floor of Sheung Tak Estate car park in the early hours of November 4 last year, while police clashed with anti-government protesters nearby.

Cheng Yuk-ki, a senior government chemist, told the court that the layout of the second floor and the third floor of the car park is similar, which may cause confusion that the 1.2-metre-tall wall on the third floor is as same as the one on the second wall, connecting to a sidewalk.

He said according to CCTV footage, there is also a man who tried to leap over the wall on the third floor, but manage to “luckily” stop himself before falling down.

The government chemist believed that Chow had previously leap over the same wall on the second floor to reach the sidewalk, where he was trying to do the same on the third floor.

Asked by the coroner officer Timmy Yip Chi-hong whether it was possible that Chow could leave behind his fingerprints or DNA after leaping over the wall, Cheng said it is difficult to lift fingerprints from the wall as it lacks a smooth surface.

Cheng also responded to Coroner David Ko Wai-hung’s question that it is hard for anyone to ambush Chow within the eight seconds after he arrived on the third floor, with no evidence supporting that hypothesis.

He said the CCTV cameras are rotated randomly making anyone wanting to ambush Chow difficult to hide from being captured by the cameras.

The expert also said even if the culprit has managed to slip under the cameras, the culprit will still need to calculate the exact time Chow walked up to the third floor, and complete the whole attack within eight seconds, which seems “difficult” to accomplish.