Chongqing Police Shoot Dead Zhou Kehua, Accused of Robbing and Killing Bank Customers in Three Chinese Cities
The 42-year-old had been hunted since a fatal robbery outside a Chongqing bank four days earlier. Police linked him to killings going back to 2004.
Published
For eight years, police in China hunted a gunman who robbed and killed people leaving banks. On August 14, 2012, officers in Chongqing shot dead the man they had named as Zhou Kehua.
Two police officers spotted Zhou, 42, in an alley and exchanged gunfire with him, officials said, according to the BBC. He had been the target of a huge manhunt in the hills around Chongqing since August 10, when a woman was shot dead and two others were injured during an attempted robbery outside a bank in the city, and a railway police officer was killed while pursuing a man believed to be Zhou. The Ministry of Public Security had classified him as a "class-A" suspect, and rewards totaling 5.4 million yuan were offered for his capture.
Police accused Zhou of a string of robberies and killings since 2004 in Chongqing, Changsha and Nanjing, saying he targeted people who had just withdrawn money from banks. In January 2012 he escaped a search in Nanjing that police said involved more than 80,000 officers, after a man who had withdrawn 200,000 yuan was shot and robbed. Zhou was born in rural Chongqing and had served a prison term in Yunnan province for trafficking firearms. He died without facing trial.
CNN reported that Zhou was accused of killing 10 people, while the BBC said he was accused of killing at least nine.