Mental health of police in deadly fight under question

Local police in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, may disarm police officers who are mentally unstable following the shooting death and suicide involving two of their own earlier this month, reported the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis Daily over the weekend.

The Shenzhen Public Security Bureau declined to comment on the newspaper report referring the Global Times on Sunday to a statement released by the bureau.

The bureau confirmed on its website Friday that two officers got into a deadly brawl in which an officer named Wu Qianchun, 54, killed himself after shooting Yang Xu, 28, the station's deputy director on September 13.

Following the death of the two officers, local police started an internal review of the mental stability of its officers, said the report quoting an unnamed police source.

In its three-paragraph statement released on its website, local police said Wu shot Yang dead after Yang stabbed Wu in his stomach. Wu then turned the gun on himself committing suicide.

The results of the investigation did not mentioning what started the fight, but noted that Wu just returned from an assignment and he had access to a firearm. Few Chinese police carry firearms.

The police report did suggest that Wu might have shot and killed Yang in self-defense, suggesting that Yang had first escalated the violence by stabbing Wu.

Wang Shun'an, director of the Institute of Criminology at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times that police need to pay attention to the mental stability of officers as they often deal with the dark side of society that puts them under tremendous stress.

"China should follow the precedent of some Western countries and Hong Kong, which have a relatively mature mechanism to help officers deal with mental health issues. Counseling officers who exhibit signs of emotional instability can help avoid such tragedies," Wang added.

A police officer from Hunan Province, who declined to be identified, told the Global Times that frontline officers work long hours and are often stressed by the pressures of the job that can cause depression and affect their mental health.