Mentally ill man, 30, accused of killing boy

Police are looking into allegations that a mentally ill man assaulted and killed a 9-year-old boy in a residential area in Changsha, Hunan province, last week.

The suspect, surnamed Feng, had just moved with his parents into the community where the crime took place, local police said in a statement issued on Saturday.

Initial investigations found Feng assaulted the victim, surnamed Luo, shortly after they met in a residential building at about 1:30 pm on Tuesday. Feng chased the boy out of the building, and attacked him after catching him, the statement said.

It did not say whether Feng was armed, but videos circulating online showed the 102-kilogram man wielding a tool that looked like a spanner as he straddled Luo, who was lying prostrate. Surveillance video showed residents beginning to gather at the scene three minutes later. Some called the police.

At 1:49 pm, Feng's father arrived and brought the attacker under control with assistance from bystanders, the statement said. The police arrived shortly after and found the boy dying. He was sent to hospital but died that afternoon.

Feng's parents told police the 30-year-old was mentally ill and was hospitalized for schizophrenia in 2010 in their home province of Henan, the statement said.

Feng was placed under custody, pending further investigation.

There have been a number of attacks carried out by mentally ill people over the last few years, renewing debate about the accountability for such crimes.

In February 2017, a man surnamed Hu killed the owner of a noodle restaurant in Wuhan, Hubei province, with a kitchen knife after a quarrel and then chopped his head off. Hu was later found to be mentally ill and was sentenced to death, with a two-year reprieve.

According to China's Criminal Law, mentally ill offenders can be held accountable for their acts if they are found to be completely or partially free of the effects of their illness when committing the crime.

Guardians are responsible for disciplining their mentally ill wards, and families could be held accountable if their negligence led to serious crimes, Ding Jinkun, a lawyer with Debund Law Offices in Shanghai, told news website ThePaper.cn.

Feng Zhiwei contributed to this story.