CCTV Shows Student Wandering Around Car Park: Police

The police say new CCTV footage has come to light showing student Chow Tsz-lok wandering alone in a car park in Tseung Kwan O for more than half an hour on Sunday night before he walked up from the second floor to the third, from where they believe he fell.

At a media briefing hours after Chow's death from his injuries on Friday, the force also admitted that the timeline of events they had originally provided was wrong, and officers had first gone into the car park at Sheung Tak Estate to tackle protesters almost two hours earlier than they previously stated.

Senior Superintendent Suzette Foo said the police believe Chow left his home in Tseung Kwan O at 11.54pm on Sunday night and CCTV footage, from between 00.26am and 01.00am, shows him wandering alone in the car park and on a connecting footbridge.

"At 01.02am he was seen walking up from the second floor to the third floor of the car park alone. Then, at 01.05am, some informants told fire services officers inside the car park that a man had fallen onto the ground," she said.

The footage cited was not shown to the media.

Foo also revised the police's timeframe of events that night, after separate dashcam footage from a member of the public emerged appearing to show officers pouring out of the car park much earlier than the force suggested they had been present.

Officers tackling "radical protesters" went into the car park for the first time at 11.06pm and left at 11.20pm, Foo said, adding that they were patrolling the car park to "ensure public order".

The police went back into the car park at 1.04am for a second time "to disperse protesters throwing objects from height", Foo told reporters, although she appeared to state this time incorrectly as "0.05am" when recapping in English.

Foo said when officers went into the car park for the second time, firefighters were already treating Chow and this was the first point that the police knew of his presence.

"There are accusations that police officers chased after the man before his fall. We must clarify that it is certainly false," Foo said.

She added that she was sorry for the confusion caused and said when the original timeline was given to the media on Tuesday, the force had only managed to review a limited amount of CCTV footage.

The police said while no officers were inside the car park when Chow was "wandering around", tear gas was fired outside and they would have to look into whether this was related in any way to what happened to him.

They also said they were aware that there had been calls online for people to stage protests over Chow's death on Friday night and over the weekend and they appealed to the public to "stay calm and rational".