Behind the KFC hostage crisis
The hostage crisis at the Putuo KFC two nights ago was a shining triumph for the Shanghai police, who managed to kill the bad guy and save the migrant worker's little four-year-old girl. Now, you can relive the glory with this account of the proceedings (in Chinese). Although we would have preferred to see Samuel L. Jackson or Kevin Spacey handle something of this danger, there was some local talent on hand. One of the negotiators dressed up and pretended to be the store manager, but to no avail. A female special forces officer also dressed up as a KFC employee and brought food and drink, but evidently, someone didn't do the chicken right, because the hostage-taker got nervous. The special forces officer had a gun stuffed in her pants but decided that this wasn't the best moment to use it.
The SPD decided that it might have to use snipers. The problem was that there was no place that they could get a clear shot without the hostage taker noticing, so they ended up using flowers (a big- ass bouquet of single-stem roses?) to somehow shield or camouflage the snipers. The report also mentions that the negotiators left the door open a crack in order to give the snipers a clearer shot (we're not sure what this means either).
The negotiations bought time not just for the little girl, but also for the police, who used the distracted attention of hostage taker to adjust their positions and strategy. They set up some boxes with little holes for the snipers to put their guns through. It was around 9:40 in the evening when the hostage-taker Tong Jiansheng raised the knife against the little girl. A single shot rang out from the gun of "Little He," a 27-year-old sniper who practices shooting with at least 1000 bullets a day. Tong Jiansheng fell back and the police rushed into rescue the little girl.
The Shanghai Daily had an article about about Tong Jiansheng, though it doesn't go into great deal about his "history of trouble" other than to say that he might have had psychiatric problems and had done some time (a year or so) behind bars.
Picture from huash.com
Also on Shanghaiist:
KFC Hostage Crisis ends with one dead