Death of Darren Ng Wei Jie

On 30 October 2010, a previous conflict between the leaders of two rival gangs, 21-year-old Dickson Ng Teck Seng of Fong Hong San (Phoenix Hill) and 18-year-old Stilwell Ong Keat Pin of Salakau (or gang 369), led to the two deciding to meet at Downtown East for a 1-on-1 fight. Ong brought along 11 other youths to meet up with Dickson Ng and armed themselves with knives and other weapons; however, the gang leader did not show up. Instead, a few of Dickson Ng's fellow gang members showed up. One of them was 19-year-old student Darren Ng Wei Jie (unrelated to Dickson Ng), a second-year industrial and operations management student from Republic Polytechnic. One of them had a tense conversation with Ong, and somehow, at some point, one of Ng's friends was involved in a staring incident with one of Ong's friends. This escalated the situation when Ong brandished a chilli sauce bottle but accidentally dropped it. Ng perceived it as a hostile move and whipped out a baton for self-defence. It only made matters worse and Ong and his gang, out of agitation, made their attack on Ng and his friends.[1]

Outnumbered, Ng and his friends fled the scene and Ong's gang gave chase, passing by many witnesses and some crowded shops in Downtown East Mall. One of the youths among those running away was seen falling down outside Popeyes, a fast food restaurant, but another helped him up and continued to run. After running some distance, Ng accidentally crashed into a glass door outside Sakura International Buffet Restaurant and before he could recover, Ong's gang caught up and together, they used screwdrivers, choppers and knives to callously slash and hack at Ng, right in front of many witnesses (including some young children), who were horrified at the violence presented in front of them.

After they ended their attack, the gang left, leaving Ng in a pool of blood outside Sakura, with a total of 28 slash wounds on his body, mostly at his left limbs and below his right rib cage. One of Ng's friends returned to tend his injured friend while an ambulance was contacted; Ng was soon brought to Changi General Hospital for immediate treatment, accompanied by his friend. Five hours after the incident, Darren Ng, the only son of his family and the youngest of two children, was pronounced dead at about 10:55 pm on the night of 30 October 2010. The cause of Ng's death was a fatal stab wound to his neck, which caused massive bleeding and thus killed him.[3]

Given the fact that the incident occurred in a Saturday evening, in front of a large crowd consisting of people of all ages, the feelings of the public had run high and the pro-death penalty advocates voiced out for the hanging of the main culprits for their part in the murder of the young student. This fact had also reinforced the blatant disregard the offenders had for the law. The government had also stepped in to implement guidance programmes to reach out for those at-risk young people and teenagers who were vulnerable to joining gangs. The violence by the gang killing also sent ripples among the emotions of the public.[2]

On 3 November 2010, Darren Ng's funeral was held. It was attended by hundreds of family members and friends, which included Ng's parents and elder sister.

In an article reporting Ng's funeral and memorial service, Ng was described as a "cheerful" young man with "a heart of gold" by those who know him. It was reported that during his secondary school years, there would be weekly phone calls made by Ng's teachers to his parents, indicating Ng as a rebellious student.

Ng's father, Francis Ng, however, said that when his son was dismissed from the polytechnic three weeks prior to his death, Ng wrote an appeal letter by himself; knowing this, the bereaved father knew that his son has grown up and wanted to quit his rebellious ways. He said at the memorial service that his son died because of his "love for his friends".

Darren Ng's elder sister, Debbie Ng, described her brother as a "little older brother" to her, saying that although he always made his family worry about him, they knew that he dearly loved them. She said, "Jie Jie (a Chinese term for "elder sister") misses you".

Ng's girlfriend, only named as Charmaine in the article, said that her boyfriend, whom she dated for seven months prior to his death, always talk about his friends and family, and a "joker" who would always make those around him laugh. Ng's childhood friend, mononymously known as Mark, said of his friend as one who always wanted "the best for his friends".[4]

In addition, Ng's friends from the secret society gang which Ng associated with also attended the funeral. When seeing reporters at the scene, some of them turned aggressive and confronted them for not giving any peace to Ng's bereaved family, threatening them with fists, covering their cameras or raising their voices, which disrupted the originally peaceful and quiet funeral.[5]

In 2011, Marvin Ng (unrelated to Darren Ng, Dickson Ng or Ng Wei Lun), a childhood friend and next-door neighbour of Darren Ng, revealed in an interview that he knew Ng since five years old and studied in the same primary school (Rosyth School) as him. Marvin stated that at the time of Ng's death, he was in preparation for his GCE A-levels, which was a week away. He said that he was sad to hear that Ng died from grievous assault at Downtown East and when he attended Ng's funeral, he could not bring himself to continue to study for his national exams. However, the then-19-year-old Millennia Institute student said that despite his grief, he was grateful for his family and Ng's parents, who supported him throughout the tragic period and his exam period and finally, he attained three "A"s for his A-level results.[6]

The first gang member to be sentenced was 19-year-old Jason Chew Wei Beng. He was brought to court nearly a year and a half after the incident, where he pleaded guilty to rioting, and another offence of causing hurt to a 20-year-old man at Bishan Bus Interchange in April 2010. On 7 March 2012, Chew was sentenced to 4 years' imprisonment, and given 6 strokes of the cane.[9] Two months later, Chew's fellow gang member Puay De Feng was sentenced to a total of 5 years' imprisonment after pleading guilty to rioting and an unrelated crime of voluntarily causing hurt to a Korean national named Yoon Sang-jun at St James Power Station, in which his sentences are ordered to run consecutively (4 years and 9 months for rioting and 3 months for voluntarily causing hurt). Puay, who was 19 at the time of the Downtown East incident, was also given 6 strokes of the cane.[10]

On 19 July 2012, four more youths were convicted of rioting and sentenced on the same date. Tang Jia Min, who initially faced a murder charge like the five main culprits, received the heaviest sentence of 6 years and 3 months' imprisonment and 6 strokes of the cane for playing a more instrumental role in the crime. Nineteen-year-old Ho Wei Quan was sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment and 6 strokes of the cane. Twenty-two-year-old Lewis Wee Jun Jie was sentenced to 4 years and 10 months' imprisonment and 6 strokes of the cane. Twenty-year-old Chong Rui Hong received the lightest sentence out of the four—4 years' imprisonment and 3 strokes of the cane.[11]

On 24 September 2012, the seventh youth Ng Wei Lun (unrelated to Darren Ng or Dickson Ng), aged 20, was sentenced to 3 years and 3 months' imprisonment and 3 strokes of the cane, a sentence comparatively lighter than that of Chong Rui Hong. Ng Wei Lun was the last gang member to be dealt with after all his friends, as his date of sentencing was more than two weeks after the sentencing of the five main culprits for their major roles in the death of Darren Ng Wei Jie.[12]

Slowly, the struggle and pain of losing their son and brother began to heal as time passed by. Ng's father Francis Ng (aged 53 in 2014) and mother Mdm Joyce Tan (aged 51 in 2014), began to slowly open up to Ng's friends from the gang, with whom they were originally angry at and partially blamed for their son's death. After they opened up and shared their grief, they began to slowly understand Ng's friends and stopped their judgemental attitude towards these delinquent youths. As for Ng's friends, they began to regard Ng's parents as their godparents, as to them, the couple gave them the parental attention they craved, and was willing to listen to their thoughts, which they did not share with even their own parents.

After moving into a new apartment, Ng's family converted a room, originally meant for Ng before his untimely death, into an entertainment centre for Ng's friends to gather and enjoy some activities. They also occasionally give advice to, or bring these young people out for meals or a movie. Gradually, from seven of Ng's friends, the group eventually consisted of more than 30 troubled youths, including the friends of Ng's acquaintances. Some were from broken families, while others are from good families, but they got along very well. One of Ng's close friends, who asked not to be named, reportedly said, "They filled the need for us to be loved and be cared for. They are very generous and kind. Godpa even paid for a degree course for one of my friends." Ng's death also became a wake-up call for some of the youths especially, "It could have happened to me or any one of my friends," said another unnamed youth. "I saw how his family struggled with the crisis. Me and the other boys, we tried our best to be with Godma. She sees Darren in us. That really allowed the beginning of the healing process." Ng's mother, who slowly come to love the youths like how she loved her son and treat them as her own, additionally said that it is hard to not have expectations on these youths, for one instance, when some of them promised her to stop smoking, it was disheartening when they did not fulfill that promise and continue to smoke. Ng's father also reportedly hosted a golf tournament together with a friend to raise funds for the troubled youth; he stated that he had lost his son and did not want to let other parents losing theirs.[16]

An unnamed friend of Darren Ng, who happened to be one of those together with Ng prior to the attack and witnessed the attack, stated that the death of his best friend changed his life drastically, leading him to turn over a new leaf and work hard to live a normal life and support his family, whom he cherished and would spend more time with. He stated that till this day, he had not gotten over the death of Ng, and still kept photos of him in his phone. The friend expressed his wish to help Ng's family to cope with their grief and take care of them but he did not want them to feel sad as seeing them will remind them of what happened that day.[17]

As for the 12 youths who attacked Ng at Downtown East, one of these youths, Chong Rui Hong, whose 4-year imprisonment sentence was backdated to the time of his remand in November 2010, was released in July 2013 after serving at least two-thirds of his sentence (2 years and 8 months) with good behaviour. Chong, who was 18 at the time of the incident, and now working as a popcorn seller, told the newspaper The Sunday Times in a phone interview in February 2014 that he was determined to start his life afresh. The incident made him reflect on his past while in prison and he decided to turn over a new leaf and strive for a future he wanted for himself. Chong was also studying part-time and planning to retake his GCE O-levels and get into a polytechnic for a brighter future.[17]

Another of these youths, Ng Wei Lun, who grew up in a single-parent family with a few other siblings and joined the gang at age 14, stated that he felt remorse over the death of Darren Ng, regretting his decision to follow his gang into Downtown East that fateful day and making his single father disappointed in him. Ng, who spent 10 months in remand and was on bail when he was interviewed by the paper before he started to serve his prison sentence of 3 years and 3 months (which he received for rioting, along with 3 strokes of the cane), stated that seeing his lorry driver father (who had to work seven days a week to pay the legal fees of his son's lawyer Josephus Tan) coping with his foolish acts, he could feel the pain Darren Ng's parents felt at the loss of their son, which made him realising his father's suffering. He even tried to do some housework to lighten his father's burden while spending his last days of freedom before serving his sentence. Ng Wei Lun's then-18-year-old girlfriend noted her boyfriend's change in behaviour and him increasingly caring over his family.[12]

In early 2020, the mastermind of the attack and gang leader, Stilwell Ong, then 28 years old, once again had run afoul with the law, this time on a charge of cheating by impersonation, which he committed on 11 October 2019, when he allegedly impersonated someone else in order to have a car delivered to him. He also faced charges of traffic and drug-related offences. He is out on $10,000 bail as of March 2020. If convicted of cheating by impersonation, Ong will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment up to five years or a fine or both.[18]

The case of Darren Ng was re-enacted into a real-life crime documentary by Channel NewsAsia. The facts of the case was narrated by David Artlett. Subhas Anandan, the lawyer who represented the main five accused of the case, appeared on screen to be interviewed.[2] The documentary was available on YouTube since 2019.

On 2 November 2020, it was reported that the police had arrested two women, both aged 28 and 36 respectively, for contempt of court over the women's social media posts, which contained allegations of preferential treatment in sentencing on account of race of alleged criminals, saying that minority people are given harsher sentences; and these allegations were linked to a murder case that occurred in Orchard Towers on 2 July 2019.[19] In response to such allegations, the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) said such media posts have the "potential to disrupt racial harmony in Singapore, and cause irreversible divisions in our communities" and amount to contempt of court, in addition to refuting these allegatory claims.[20] Once again, Darren Ng's death was brought up in a news report reporting this.

The facts of the case were that on the fateful day of 2 July 2019, a group of seven people in their twenties were involved in an physical brawl with 31-year-old Satheesh Noel Gobidass, and Satheesh Noel was killed during the fight. The group of seven people were all arrested and charged with murder. However, by November 2020, six of the members saw their murder charges reduced while the seventh and last member, 28-year-old Tan Sen Yang, was the sole attacker left shouldering the murder charge and was set to stand trial on a later date.[21] Tan Sen Yang was said to be armed with a karambit knife and used it to stab at the victim's head and neck multiple times resulting in the man's death. The case was dubbed the "Orchard Towers murder" in local media.

As for the other six members, one of them - 27-year-old Chan Jia Xing - who was investigated to be trying to stop the fight and was not involved in the fight and fully cooperated with the police after his arrest, was set free after he received a 12-month conditional warning for a lesser charge of consorting with a person carrying an offensive weapon in a public place (in this case, it refers to Tan Sen Yang), which meant no conviction or sentence, but if Chan ever re-offend within the next 12-month period, he would return to court. Another two members - 26-year-old Joel Tan Yun Sheng and 26-year-old Ang Da Yuan - pleaded guilty to lower charges of voluntarily causing hurt to the victim. Additionally, Ang also pleaded guilty to consorting with a person possessing an offensive weapon.

As a result, on 6 March 2020, Joel Tan (unrelated to Tan Sen Yang) was sentenced to 4 weeks' imprisonment, while Ang was sentenced to 8 months' imprisonment and 6 strokes of the cane.[22] The fourth member to be sentenced was 24-year-old Natalie Siow Yu Zhen, who pleaded guilty to one charge each of voluntarily causing hurt with common intention and of consorting with a person possessing an offensive weapon. Siow, who was the only female of the 7-men group, was sentenced to 5 months' imprisonment with no caning on 9 October 2020 (as females are not allowed to be caned under Singapore law).[23] The remaining two members - 26-year-old Loo Boon Chong and 23-year-old Tan Hong Sheng - were not yet sentenced as of November 2020. Tan Hong Sheng (unrelated to Joel Tan or Tan Sen Yang) currently faces one lower charge of consorting with a person carrying an offensive weapon in a public place, while Loo currently faces one charge of consorting with a person carrying an offensive weapon in a public place and one charge of perverting the course of justice.[24]

Three days after the arrest of the two women for the preferential treatment allegations, it was reported that the day before, in Parliament, Minister of State for Home Affairs Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim called these claims baseless and irresponsible. He said everyone are entitled to fair and equal treatment under the law. Faishal told the House that where there are several suspects allegedly involved in the same capital case (like murder or kidnapping), all of them will face the same charge together initially, and these people will be detained in remand pending further investigations and after looking through the facts of the case, it will be decided whether to proceed with the capital charge or reduce it or withdraw it. Faishal said that the positions made against the people involved in the case would differ based on the evidence available and his/her role in the matter.

To support his case, Faishal cited the 2010 murder of 19-year-old Darren Ng Wei Jie and the 12-member gang attack from 10 years ago, in which all the 12 gang members initially faced the murder charges before it ultimately ended into seven people convicted of rioting while the other five convicted of the most serious charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Once again, before ending off, Faishal reiterated that everyone, regardless of race, religion, socio-economic status or educational achievements, are not subject to any preferential treatment by the criminal justice system of Singapore.[25]

As an aftermath of this controversy, Loo Boon Chong was sentenced on 15 January 2021 to 5 months in jail after he pleaded guilty to the charges he faced.[26] Tan Hong Sheng, who was brought to trial on 5 February 2021, pleaded guilty to the charges related to his role in the murder case and two other unrelated charges of rioting (which he committed on 18 November 2018 and 25 February 2019 respectively). The prosecution sought a sentence of at least 5 years in prison with 12 strokes of the cane after emphasising that Tan Hong Sheng had committed two earlier rioting offences, while the defence counsel argued for a lighter sentence on account that their client was merely trying to stop the fight and not taking part in it. Tan Hong Sheng's sentencing was postponed to 5 March 2021.[27]

Tan Sen Yang was not yet tried as of February 2021.