On New Year’s Eve this year, a gruesome criminal case occurred in Huizhou, Guangdong. A man brutally murdered his 7-month-old niece and then took his own father hostage. The case is set to be tried in court on August 6, attracting public attention.
According to reports from Dahe Daily and Xinjing News, the victim, Mr. Leng, middle-aged man, due to the busy work schedules of him and his wife, their daughter was often taken care of by her grandmother.
On the evening of New Year’s Eve (January 28), Mr. Leng’s family went to his eldest sister’s home for a reunion dinner with his parents and his brother, Leng Ming. After dinner, Mr. Leng and his wife left first, leaving their daughter in the care of her grandmother.
In the early hours of the 29th, Mr. Leng received a call from his mother saying that his brother, Leng Ming, had attacked their daughter with a fruit knife, injuring both the parents as well. Mr. Leng and his wife hurried back to the sister’s house but couldn’t see their daughter one last time due to the gate being locked.
According to the prosecution indictment, after the dinner, Leng Ming took out a knife from his bag when the room only had his parents and niece. He then attacked his niece, Leng Fei. When the niece struggled and cried, her mother, He Lan, intervened and got her hands cut by Leng Ming.
Later, Leng Ming pushed He Lan out of the room and locked the door. He Lan immediately went downstairs to seek help from the security guard and called the police. Meanwhile, after attacking his niece, Leng Ming locked the gate, and then took his father, Leng Jian, who had woken up to check the situation, out to the balcony with a knife.
At 1:42 am, the police arrived upon receiving the distress call and broke into the room. A standoff ensued until around 3 am when the police finally subdued Leng Ming. Subsequently, paramedics arrived on the scene and confirmed that Leng Fei had no vital signs.
Through examination, it was determined that Leng Fei’s neck was cut by a sharp object, causing rupture of the major blood vessels in the neck leading to massive blood loss and death; Leng Jian and He Lan suffered minor injuries.
What’s puzzling is that there had been no disputes or conflicts between the two parties before the incident. According to Mr. Leng, his brother Leng Ming, born in 1980, unmarried in his forties, has a three-year age gap with him. They did not grow up together and had a distant relationship, but Mr. Leng never noticed any abnormalities in his brother.
Mr. Leng mentioned that he only found out after the incident that “he didn’t want to live.” The prosecution’s indictment shows that the defendant, Leng Ming, due to setbacks in work and life, had long been emotionally depressed, anxious, and had thoughts of suicide.
Mr. Leng applied for two psychiatric evaluations of Leng Ming. The first evaluation result was severe depression, and the second was a deteriorated mental state. Both evaluations indicated that Leng Ming was in an acute phase during the crime but had full criminal responsibility.
Leng Ming was charged by the prosecution with intentional homicide and kidnapping, holding him criminally responsible. Mr. Leng stated that he has many questions needing answers in court and “hopes the truth will be revealed and justice served for his daughter.”