Extracted from The Straits
Times
Youth who died may have been attacked because of a wallet
he apparently found at a Chinatown games arcade
By Ben Nadarajan
A POLYTECHNIC student was beaten so violently that his swollen eyes
would not close even as he died in his hospital bed.
Wong Dao Jing, 18, from Temasek Polytechnic, died at Singapore
General Hospital on Saturday night, about one hour after being
found unconscious on the staircase of a shopping centre in Temple
Street in Chinatown.
His two friends, with whom he had gone to a games arcade, found
him, face down in blood which he had coughed up after being kicked
and punched by a group of men.
It is believed that the men were not armed.
Yesterday, his father said his son's eyes would not close because
they were too swollen from the beating.
'His right ear was black, his lips were swollen, his eyes had
traces of blood and his whole head was swollen.
'How could anyone do such an inhumane thing to my son?' said Mr
Wong, his face tightening in anger. He declined to give his full
name.
Dao Jing's grandmother said the dispute might have been over a
wallet he had apparently picked up.
Madam Sua Ah Moi, 66, said quietly, in a voice thick with grief:
'His two friends told us that he had picked up a wallet at the
games arcade and had kept it with him.'
It is believed that several men had approached Dao Jing later,
saying the wallet belonged to one of them.
Dao Jing had gone to Genie Funworld on the third storey of Lucky
Chinatown Shopping Centre with two childhood friends.
They were playing at another machine, while Dao Jing was on his
own.
Some witnesses told police they saw him being led away by a group
of Chinese men.
When the two friends found him missing, they went in search of him
and found him on the staircase landing between the first and second
floor. Initially, they thought he had tripped and cracked his head
on the floor.
A shopkeeper, who declined to be named, said the police were asking
people in the vicinity if they had seen a 'tall and well-built
Chinese man in his 30s' fleeing from the staircase.
Shopkeepers said the staircase was usually deserted and that any
shouts or screams for help would have been drowned out by the loud
music from the karaoke lounge on the fourth floor.
Dao Jing's grandfather, Mr Wong Seng Wah, with whom he lived, said:
'When I heard that he had been beaten up in a fight, I thought he
had suffered some minor injuries.
'Never did I expect to see him dead in hospital.'
Dao Jing, a first-year commerce student, had an older and a younger
sister.
The sisters have lived with their grandparents in a Bedok South
Housing Board flat since their parents divorced about five years
ago.
Police are investigating and any one with information should call
1800-255-0000.
