Jury Delivers Open Verdict On Chow Tsz-lok's Death

A jury on Saturday returned an open verdict in the death of university student Chow Tsz-lok, following almost two days of deliberation.

The five-member jury, consisting of two men and three women, told the Coroner's Court that they were unable to determine the causes and circumstances of Chow's death.

The 22-year-old died of head injuries four days after apparently falling from the third to the second floor of a Tseung Kwan O car park in the small hours of November 4 2019, amid an anti-government protest in the area.

The cause of his fall remained a mystery, as no security cameras in the car park captured his final movements before the fall.

While speculation was rife that he had fallen while trying to escape police tear gas or while running away from riot officers, coroner David Ko had previously said in summing up the investigation that there was no evidence that Chow had taken part in the protest that night, or had been affected by tear gas fired by police more than 130 metres away from the fall.

He added that security footage at the car park showed Chow acting alone, and there was no sign that officers had come into contact with him.

Ko had instructed the jury to return one of three verdicts, saying they could either rule that it was an unlawful killing; an accident; or give an open verdict which means there's not enough evidence to draw a conclusion.

The inquest into the death of the University of Science and Technology student lasted for almost four weeks, with nearly 50 witnesses summoned.

Speaking to reporters after the court ruling, the 22-year-old's father, Chow Tak-ming, said he respects the verdict and thanked the jurors for their hard work.

"They took the case very seriously and have worked so hard. I want to tell Tsz-lok that we've tried our best to find out the truth, even though many questions remain unanswered and we are still some distance away from being able to get to the very bottom of what happened", he said, teary-eyed.