Society

Man battled for a better world

By Zhu Chengpei and Zhang Xiaomin (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-31 07:31

Crime fighter dies following confrontation with thieves

Dalian, Liaoning - His dream was a world without thieves. Now it's a goal that must go forward without him.

Zhang Yue (R), fiancee of Wei Lei, a vigilante against thieves who died on Tuesday, weeps in his hospital ward in Dong guan, Guangdong province, on Sunday. [China Daily]

Wei Lei, or as he dubbed himself, "The Cannon," had planned to fire a broadside at crime. In 2006 the vigilante made a pledge to stop thieves, and since then helped nab at least 100 criminals in his home province of Liaoning.

His last attempt, however, turned deadly.

Last Thursday, Wei found himself up against a petty thief who targeted his necklace on a busy street in Dongguan, Guangdong province.

Wei Lei in a file photo.

An experienced fighter, Wei was able to quickly subdue his attacker. But he did not manage to dodge the thief's accomplice, who came up from behind and stabbed Wei. The two suspects fled and left their victim bleeding.

Wei was sent to hospital where, even after emergency treatment, he died on Tuesday.

It was one day before he was to celebrate his 29th birthday with his fiancee in Dalian, Liaoning province.

The couple had planned to spend only a few days in Dongguan, where Wei was doing business with a local friend over secondhand cars.

"Who would have known that would happen - just two days before we were scheduled to leave?" asked Wei's fiancee Zhang Yue.

Wei's father told China Daily on Monday evening he could not believe thieves had killed his son over a necklace.

"Wasn't it just a necklace?" Wei Yiming asked. "He should have just let them take it. It was not worth fighting for."

Wei Yiming had not known his son was the leader behind a civilian team that pledged to fight thieves until Wei Lei was arrested in January last year for seriously injuring a thief in a shopping mall with two other volunteers.

The father had tried at that time to persuade his son to quit his vigilante activities.

"It's the job of the police, not us common people, to catch thieves," he said.

But Wei Lei and his brothers-in-arms did not think so.

His dream is shared by members of www.fanpa.net, a nationwide civilian organization battling criminal activities.

"Most of us have been attacked by thieves. And we've seen horrible cases of poor people suffering because their money was stolen by these criminals," said a team member who went by the online name "Lunhui".

Lunhui went to the hospital in Dongguan on March 26 to collect donations for the injured Wei from fellow volunteers.

"We always gave thieves a good thrashing whenever we caught them," Lunhui said.

But Wei was jailed seven months for his shopping mall beating and that made the vigilantes realize they needed to find other, non-violent, ways to stop thieves.

"We stopped beating thieves after that," Lunhui said.

"Instead, we follow them and record them on video, then post the videos online to warn others," he said.

When Wei was in the intensive care unit, volunteers from Guangdong and other provinces came to help him and his family. Hundreds of people gave their support through the Internet.

"Hold on, Huopao (Cannon)! Brothers all over the country are pulling for you," said the head of the Dongguan team, named Guren.

Wei's family and friends celebrated his birthday two days ago in hospital.

He died less than a day after his attackers were arrested.