Warning shots

Questions over legality of fatal shooting by police chief highlights need for China to launch independent inquiries, report He Na and Zhang Yuchen

Mystery still surrounds the events that led to the fatal shooting this month of two unarmed men by a small town police chief in Guizhou province. The local community disputes the official line that the men were killed as they attempted a drunken assault, with some eyewitnesses claiming the officer shot them in cold blood.

Following the investigation by authorities in Pogong town that exonerated Zhang Lei, the town's deputy police chief and the man who pulled the trigger, the Ministry of Public Security decided to send its own team to probe the case.