Shooting tragedy could have been avoided

The death of Xu Chunhe, a beggar, at Qing'an railway station in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province on May 2 would not have put so much pressure on police and the local government had the local officials released the surveillance video immediately instead of waiting for 12 days to do so.

Reports said a policeman shot Xu, the 45-year-old father of three children and husband of a mentally challenged woman. The tragedy forced the sacking of the deputy head of the county government for rewarding the policeman for his action after netizens exposed he had lied about his age and education.

Worried about the developments, the Ministry of Public Security sent a team to investigate the incident nine days after it took place. The team released the video after three days of investigation.