Driver who plowed into school crowd in southern China given suspended death sentence

By Nectar Gan and Joyce Jiang, CNN

Hong Kong (CNN) — A Chinese court has issued a suspended death sentence to a man who rammed his car into crowds outside a primary school in southern China last month, injuring more than two dozen people in one of several violent attacks that has recently rattled the country and prompted officials to ramp up security measures.

The driver, named as Huang Wen, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve by a court in Changde city in Hunan province, state news agency Xinhua reported Monday.

Under Chinese law, the reprieve means Huang’s penalty can be commuted to life imprisonment, subject to his conduct during the two-year period.

Huang was arrested on site after injuring 30 people, including 18 students, on the morning of November 19, according to the court.

The court said Huang launched the attack to vent his frustration after suffering investment losses and conflicts with family members.

Huang got out of his vehicle after crashing it into people and attacked bystanders with a weapon before being apprehended, according to the court.

Video circulating on social media and geolocated by CNN showed dozens of panicked schoolchildren screaming and running into the schoolyard, with a man’s voice heard yelling “quickly, quickly,” in the background.

Another video showed multiple people, including adults, lying on the road, apparently injured. Police could be seen handcuffing a man in front of a vehicle.

Images circulating online of the incident were quickly wiped from social media platforms, while comment sections on posts related to the incidents were disabled.

“Huang Wen chose an unspecified large number of innocent primary school students as his main targets, demonstrating a despicable motive and extreme malice,” the court said in a statement.

Spate of attacks

The incident in Changde came just over a week after China saw its deadliest known attack in a decade, when 35 people were killed after a man plowed his car into crowds exercising at an outdoor sports center in the southern city of Zhuhai.

The suspect, a 62-year-old man, was apprehended while trying to flee the scene. An initial investigation suggested he was unhappy with the outcome of a divorce settlement, according to police.

Eight people were also killed and 17 others injured in a mass stabbing on a college campus in eastern China on November 16.

Sudden episodes of violence targeting random members of the public – including children – have surged across China in recent months as economic growth stutters, unnerving a public long accustomed to low violent crime rates and ubiquitous surveillance.

Some social media users have taken to warning each other to be cautious of people becoming more desperate and unstable, calling the recent attacks an act of “revenge against society.”

Public discontent has been mounting in China over the country’s flailing economy, which is grappling with numerous woes from an ailing property sector to low consumer confidence and high youth unemployment.

Authorities have rolled out some stimulus measures, but many experts say they are not enough to boost much-needed domestic demand and revive the economy.

The recent outbursts of violence have unnerved China’s top officials.

In response to the Zhuhai attack, Chinese leader Xi Jinping urged officials to “prevent risks at the source” and “promptly resolve conflicts and disputes” to prevent such incidents from happening again.

Last month, China’s top judge called on court officials to hand out swift and severe punishment for violent attacks on the public.

The country’s top prosecutor also pledged last month to “resolve conflicts, manage risks and maintain social stability” and maintain “zero tolerance” on crimes that endanger the safety of students.

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