Kindergarten killer caught by police
By Li Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-10-25 11:00

Beijing police have arrested a man accused of last week's killing of a five-year-old boy and his teacher at a kindergarten in the heart of the city.

A 31-year-old man was picked up early on Saturday morning and confessed to the murder, said a spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.

Preliminary investigations show that the suspect killed the pair after they found him stealing from the kindergarten.

Police said they received a call on early Thursday morning that a teacher was killed and a boy was missing at the Beixin Kindergarten in Dongcheng District.

The boy's body, bearing no obvious wounds, was later found stuffed in a washing machine in the kindergarten.

The teacher, who was on night duty at the time, had been seriously hit on the head and died before medical assistance arrived.

The murder followed a serious attack last month in which a gatekeeper stabbed 15 children and three teachers in another kindergarten in Beijing, killing one of the children.

Police said the suspect of the latest school attack is also allegedly involved in several theft cases and the investigation is continuing.

The suspect, named Fu Hegong, who has theft record, is a native of Miyun County in northeastern Beijing.

"Quite often, his temper flares at home. He does not like to talk with others, or even to visit his relatives," the Beijing News quoted Fu's father as saying.

He added that he had not seen his son or received any news from him for nearly two years.

Living in a poverty-stricken family, Fu was said to be unsociable and had few friends, according to the report.

"He likes to be silent. I cannot believe that he would kill people at all," the report quoted Fu's younger sister as saying.

The latest kindergarten case again sounded the alarm on child safety after recent attacks.

Late last month, a primary school teacher stabbed four children to death and wounded 12 pupils and four colleagues in Central China's Hunan Province.

Also last month, a bus driver stabbed and wounded 25 primary school children in East China's Shandong Province.

On September 11, a man wielding a knife and homemade bombs attacked 28 children in a kindergarten in Suzhou.

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