Upskirting, gun swiping officer in remand

A 39-year-old off-duty police officer, who was earlier arrested for upskirting and attempting to snatch a service revolver from his colleague at the reporting room of the Tsim Sha Tsui Police Station, has been remanded after his court appearance on Friday.

The officer, charged with two counts of unlawful recording and observation of intimate parts and attempted possession of arms respectively, was brought to the Kowloon City Court this morning. He was not required to enter a plea.

The magistrate adjourned the case to March 13 upon the prosecution’s request. The officer’s bail application has been turned down and was required to be remanded until his next court appearance.

It was understood that the defendant is an off-duty police constable and was earlier arrested for taking photos up a 35-year-old woman’s skirt on a escalator in Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station.

He was taken to the Tsim Sha Tsui Police Station at around 4pm on Wednesday (Jan 15) before suddenly experiencing an emotional meltdown and attempting to snatch a gun from his fellow on-duty colleagues when they were handing over the case, sources said.

It is understood that he regretted his own behavior and attempted to grab the gun to commit suicide.

The suspect was immediately subdued at the scene after failing to snatch the gun, according to sources, while no shot was fired during the incident.

Wednesday’s case marks the third gun-snatching incident within half a year.

On July 9 last year, a 38-year-old man attempted to snatch an officer’s pistol in the intensive care unit of Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Jordan.

In a separate incident, a male and a female officer were escorting a suspect to the North District Hospital in Sheung Shui for treatment, when a 35-year-old male patient at the hospital assaulted the male officer.

During the scuffle, the patient was able to grab onto the handle of the male officer’s service revolver, and the male officer immediately stopped him with his extendable baton. The female officer also tried to stop him by using her baton and pepper spray.