Khor Kok Soon

Khor Kok Soon (许国顺 Xŭ Guóshùn; 23 February 1953 – c. 2006) was a Singaporean gunman who was notorious for his high-profile shoot-out with the police at Shenton Way on 30 July 1984, and was also the prime suspect behind the murder of a 26-year-old lorry driver, whom he held as a hostage to help him drive away from the police before he allegedly killed him.

Khor Kok Soon was born in Singapore on 23 February 1953 and grew up with many siblings in his family.

He only studied up to Primary Six in elementary school, and he left school to become independent.

It was at this point where he gradually gone astray, and he was first caught committing theft at age 13.

He also became addicted to gambling, and often suffered great losses.

In his personal life, Khor was married with two daughters, who were born in 1974 and 1978 respectively.

He also worked odd-jobs and even sold ang ku kueh to make a living aside from his criminal career.

In 1979, Khor was arrested for robbery, but the charge was reduced to theft and Khor thus spent a few months in prison before his release during that same year.

Shortly after his release, Khor formed a gang with three other people, in which all four of them would commit armed robbery, and they were involved in near to 15 cases.

Out of these robberies, Khor was involved in the October 1983 robbery of a lead factory owner in which he fired three shots at the victim, who survived the injuries.

Khor, who was involved in previous armed robbery offences prior to the 1984 shooting incident, fled Singapore after the gunfight and went on the run for the next 19 years, therefore becoming one of Singapore's ten most wanted criminals.

Another case took place on 30 March 1984 at Empress Place, where Khor robbed a pregnant woman and got off with S$9,000, and a third at Enggor Street on 19 May 1984, where Khor robbed a pair of sisters on gunpoint and got off with a S$36,000 loot.

On the afternoon of 30 July 1984, 31-year-old Khor Kok Soon and his 43-year-old accomplice Lim Woo Sung (林武生 Lín Wǔshēng), alias "Toh Huay Seow", planned to commit armed robbery at Shenton Way.

Riding a stolen motorcycle, both Khor and Lim headed to Shenton Way, and upon reaching the place, they roamed the area and monitored at least six banks, looking for a target to rob.

The pair's intention was not to rob a bank, but to rob any people who carried huge amounts of cash to the bank.

By the time the pair went to the sixth bank, a team of police officers were already arriving at that area due to a tip-off about the presence of armed robbers at Shenton Way.

When Khor went inside the bank to search for targets to rob, Lim was approached by police and he was arrested.

As for Khor, he was followed by two police detectives, Corporal Quek Chek Kwang (郭志光 Guō Zhìguāng) and Sergeant Lim Kiah Chin (林家振 Lín Jiāzhèn).

After stalking Khor for some distance on the streets, both Sergeant Lim and Corporal Quek proceeded to restrain Khor, who brandished his gun, a .22 Browning Hi-Power, and pointed it at the two officers after breaking free of their grip.

Afterwards, Khor made his escape.

While the two policemen gave chase after Khor, Khor ran onto the road and he attempted to climb onto a passing lorry, and he threatened the driver on gunpoint to drive him to safety.

While Khor tried to enter the lorry, he first discharged his gun at one of the two officers, Sergeant Lim, who was the nearest behind him.

The shot missed Sergeant Lim, and several shots were exchanged between Khor and the two officers, who were joined by a third policeman, Senior Inspector (SI) Cyril Sta Maria, who was not involved in the operation to capture Khor but happened to be driving by while off-duty.

After the shoot-out, Khor managed to get into the lorry, and it drove off despite the police giving chase behind it.

Later that day after the shootout, the lorry which was boarded by Khor was found abandoned in a back alley at Teo Hong Road, and inside the lorry, the 26-year-old lorry driver Ong King Hock (王庆福 Wáng Qìngfú) was found dead with a gaping gunshot wound on the right side of his neck, and his body was leaning onto the steering wheel.

At the time of his death, Ong, the fifth of seven children in his family, left behind a fiancée, his parents, two older brother, two elder sisters and two younger sisters, and he worked for his brother, a contractor, as a lorry driver.

On that fateful day itself, Ong was driving that lorry along Shenton Way after having lunch with his brother, with the intention of heading to the police station to pay a traffic fine on his brother's behalf when Khor entered his lorry and forced him to drive him before he was killed, allegedly by Khor or any of the pursuing police officers.

A search in the area also led to the discovery of Khor's bloodstained shirt, which implied that Khor was injured on the back shoulder.

However, Khor was nowhere to be found.

According to Professor Chao Tzee Cheng, the senior forensic pathologist who performed an autopsy on Ong's corpse, he determined that the cause of death was due to the bullet penetrating the neck and severing the spinal column, which killed Ong within minutes.

Also, it was opined that Khor was most likely the one who killed Ong, as the bullet that killed Ong did not belong to any of the policemen's revolvers, because the bullets issued to police were of .38 calibre and the test firing of the police's guns showed none of the bullets matched to those of the bullet, which was measured to be much larger than .22 calibre.

Based on the degree of damage caused and little amount of blood around Ong's driver seat, the shot that killed Ong was fired point blank from a close-range distance of 10 to 12 cm, and the killing may have taken place at the back alley of Teo Hong Road or somewhere in the nearby streets.

By then, Ong's family was still paying attention to the case's developments, and Ong's ex-fiancée had re-married in 1988 and became a mother, but like Ong's bereaved kin, she still regularly sought updates on the development of her former fiancé's case and hoped for justice to be served.

As a result of the shoot-out, as well as the murder of the lorry driver Ong King Hock, 31-year-old Khor Kok Soon was immediately placed on top of the police's wanted list, with preliminary charges of murder and firearm offences tendered against him.

They also informed the public through the media to be alert of the "armed and dangerous" murder suspect.

The police also sought the assistance and cooperation of the local police from both Malaysia and Thailand to trace Khor's whereabouts, as he was believed to have escaped to either Malaysia or Thailand.

In a coroner's inquiry that took place in December 1998, 14 years after Ong was killed, State Coroner Shaifuddin Saruwan issued a guilty verdict of murder, which effectively found Khor guilty of murdering the lorry driver, though it did not amount to a conviction.

Khor was arrested at Malaysia's Johor Bahru in December 2003, and he was extradited back to Singapore to be charged with murder under the Penal Code, and also faced another three charges of illegally discharging a firearm under the Arms Offences Act.

Subsequently, Khor was given a discharge not amounting to an acquittal for the lorry driver's murder, but he was convicted of firing his gun with intent to cause hurt, and sentenced to death on 25 February 2005.

After losing his appeal in September 2005, Khor was eventually hanged at Changi Prison in 2006.