A 29-year-old local man who had stabbed a couple on Thursday morning on the 18th floor of Block 15 in the New City Garden Estate in Toi San district, was found to be suffering from a mental abnormality, Judiciary Police (PJ) spokesman Ho Chan Nam said at a press briefing on Friday.
The local jobless man is surnamed Lao.
According to Ho, the Public Security Police (PSP) notified the Judiciary Police on Thursday morning at about 10:20 a.m. that someone had stabbed a couple on the 18th floor. PJ officers rushed to the scene where they found Lao in one of the flats on the same floor. Ho said Lao opened the door and the officers discovered three knives without blood stains in the kitchen and his bedroom. The officers believe that Lao had used one of the knives to stab the couple, Ho said.
Ho said that Lao appeared to be “mentally abnormal” when he was arrested and at the time of the press conference, he was undergoing an evaluation in the psychiatric department of the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre. Ho said Lao was on medication before the stabbing, adding that the result of the psychiatric evaluation would be announced in due course.
According to Ho, the female victim told the police that she had never had a quarrel with Lao. When she left her home on Thursday morning, Lao who lives in the flat next-door, suddenly stabbed her with a knife and she shouted for help. As her husband heard someone calling for help in the corridor, he rushed out to see what was going on. When Lao saw him, he stabbed him. The male victim sustained injuries to the left of his neck. He was discharged from hospital later that day after outpatient treatment. His wife sustained stab wounds on her hands, back and fractures on her right hand. She was still hospitalised at the time of the press conference.
Ho said the Judiciary Police have classified the case as an aggravated attempted homicide, adding that the investigation was still ongoing.
This handout photo provided by the Judiciary Police (PJ) on Friday shows PJ officers investigating at the scene where the stabbing by a “mentally abnormal” man occurred on Thursday morning on the 18th floor of Block 15 in the New City Garden in Toi San.
