Three inmates recaptured, one shot dead

• Source: Global Times
• [03:16 October 21 2009]
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By Kang Juan

Four inmates who escaped from a prison in Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region were caught Tuesday, with one of the fugitives shot to death by police. The three others will likely face the death penalty, according to experts in criminal law.

The police hurried to a village of Helin County after receiving a tip-off from a villager at about 8:00 am Tuesday. The four escapees, riding on a farm tricycle with a farmer, were later intercepted and confronted on the road.

After the police knocked over the tricycle, the four, taking the farmer hostage, confronted police, who fought back. One of the escapees was shot dead, another was badly injured before being caught and the farmer and one police officer were also injured during the recapture, the Legal Mirror reported.

Police began to hunt for the four, aged from 21 to 28, soon after they escaped Saturday from the No. 2 Prison in Hohhot, with more 7,300 policemen, 5,000 armed police and 2,000 vehicles mobilized. The prison management set up hotlines for tip-offs from the public.

The most valuable clue came Monday morning from a 68-year-old Helin resident surnamed Wang, who was vigilant of strangers after he heard of the prison-break on his way home from Hohhot on Sunday.

"I heard a knock at the yard door before dawn and got up to find a bald man peeking over the top of the wall, and who asked for some water," he was quoted by the Legal Mirror as saying.

Wang didn't open the door at that time and reported the sighting to the police after he later found the footprints of four people outside his gate.

Ai Guoping, a local lawyer, told Inner Mongolia Radio that death penalties might be handed down for the captured, due to the fact that violence was used during the prison-break.

The escape included the crimes of hostage-taking and murder, Ai said.