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Fake flower leads to beating death

By Wang Huazhong (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-14 09:24

A hotel boss allegedly bashed a mother to death in retaliation for bickering with a waitress who had scolded the woman's son for picking a plastic flower in the lobby of the hotel in Chongqing municipality.

Zeng Lu looks at his mother's portrait by the side of the Tiangongdian police station last Thursday. His mother was killed by a hotel owner after she argued with a waitress at the hotel over the boy picking a plastic flower in the lobby. [China Daily]

The man, surnamed Zeng, who is in police custody, later paid compensation to the woman's family but allegedly bragged that he would "spend two million yuan ($290,000) to buy the person's life."

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The mother, Tian Jiafang, 34, from Jintang county, neighboring Sichuan province, died outside the Jinxiangge business hotel on Aug 1.

Tian allegedly had a disagreement that afternoon with a waitress after her three-year-old son picked a plastic flower in the lobby.

Tian came back to the hotel about 9 pm that evening, and was out in front, soliciting passengers to ride in her husband's mini-van taxi, according to a report in the Chongqing Economic Times.

Zeng then went outside and assaulted her in retaliation for fighting with the waitress earlier.

She was allegedly pushed and beaten by Zeng, causing her to fall and hit the back of her head on the ground. She died from internal bleeding and brain damage about 1 am the next morning.

A person who claimed to be a witness told the newspaper: "He (Zeng) said that at worst, 'I would spend two million yuan to buy the person's life'."

However, a manager surnamed Nie from Zeng's hotel, which is next to Longtousi Railway station, told China Daily that "Zeng would not be so silly to say things like that."

Zeng, who is from the municipality's Nanping county and is in his 30s, is being detained by police after he turned himself in Aug 2.

The local procurator was considering officially arresting him this week, the newspaper reported.

The victim's husband reportedly agreed not to press charges in a compensation deal signed with Zeng's relatives on Aug 8.

After receiving 285,000 yuan, the husband, Zeng Donghai, returned home with the couple's two children aged 3 and 6.

"Agreeing not to press charges from our side does not mean criminal charges will not be made against him. I hope people who beat others will be punished," the husband told the newspaper.

Zhang Xianyun, a lawyer from Chongqing, told China Daily that the boss would likely receive a lighter penalty because he turned himself in to police and paid compensation to the family.