'No Evidence Chow Tsz-lok Was Affected By Tear Gas'

A toxicologist has told the Coroner’s Court looking into the death of university student Chow Tsz-lok that there’s no evidence to show that the 22-year-old had been exposed to tear gas before his apparent fall or that he had been poisoned.

Chow was found lying with serious head injuries in a Tseung Kwan O car park during the small hours of November 4 last year, amid an anti-government protest in the area.

On day 25 of the inquest, Dr Tse Man-li, the consultant in charge of the Hong Kong Poison Information Centre, gave the court his assessments after examining Chow's medical and post-mortem reports.

The expert witness said he concluded that no poisonous substance or medication could have caused the student’s death, and no clinical evidence suggested that he had been poisoned.

He said there was also no evidence that the student had been affected by tear gas before he had been taken to hospital.

Tse said that when medical staff tend to a person who has been affected by tear gas, they would likely feel the effects of the crowd-control agent too, such as experiencing eye pain and having a runny nose.

But the expert said no medical staff who had taken care of Chow at Queen Elizabeth Hospital had reported showing those signs.

The toxicologist also said that while the firing of tear gas could emit a small amount of cyanide, it was almost impossible that a person could die of poisoning after inhaling cyanide from tear gas.

During the hearing, the expert was shown footage of a person believed to be Chow walking from Beverly Gardens to the third floor of the car park at around 1am, and another video clip which was believed to have captured his apparent fall soon afterwards.

Tse said there was no evidence in the footage to suggest Chow had been affected by tear gas at that time, adding that most of the other people nearby did not seem to have been affected either, as some looked quite relaxed.

Another piece of footage was presented in court showing that police had fired tear gas at the upper floors of the car park from the ground on Tong Chun Street at around 1am, just before Chow‘s apparent fall at 1:01am.

The tear gas was aimed at one end of the car park, around 130 metres away from where Chow was believed to have fallen.

Asked whether a person that far away could be affected by the shot, Tse said that would depend on factors such as the wind direction at the time and whether the tear gas was fired indoors or outdoors.

He said it was possible that the tear gas could spread 100 to 130 metres in a semi-enclosed space like the car park, but noted that the intensity of the tear gas would not be high after it had travelled 130 metres.

A police officer from the force's identification bureau, meanwhile, told the court that he had not found any fingerprints on a wall on the third floor of the car park, over which Chow is believed to have fallen.

Senior constable Yuen Chi-hung said he had tried to collect fingerprints on the wall on November 5 last year, but did not see any in the samples he collected.

Nor did he find any sign of a hand having been placed on the wall, Yuen said.

He noted that the fact that the surface of the wall was bumpy and full of dust was not helpful for collecting fingerprints.

Yuen also said he did not collect DNA samples from the wall because the area was too big and since he did not know where exactly Chow might have fallen from, he could not narrow his focus on any particular object to collect fingerprints.

Inspector Lai Chun-man, also from the identification bureau, said he agreed with Yuen's judgement, saying it was sensible of him not to collect DNA samples at the site.

All the witnesses for the inquest had finished giving their testimonies by Monday.

The court was expected to hear final submissions from lawyers representing Chow’s parents, the police, and the Fire Services Department on Tuesday.