Death sentence for man who killed 2 boys
A man who killed two boys in a knife attack outside a local primary school in June last year has been sentenced to death.
Another boy and a parent were injured in the attack.
Shanghai No.1 Intermediate People's Court said that although psychiatric tests showed Huang Yichuan had schizophrenia and limited criminal capacity, it didn't affect this case much because his crime was extremely serious and was not obviously influenced by his mental state at the time.
The court said Huang believed he had been insulted and hurt by others, and came up with the idea of killing children to vent his anger.
Between March and October 2017, he went to several cities, including Shanghai and Guangzhou, to take pictures of kindergartens and primary schools as potential targets.
Eventually, the court said, he targeted pupils at the Shanghai World Foreign Language Primary School.
On the morning of June 28, he was near the school waiting for his chance. Around 11:30am, he followed three pupils, surnamed Tan, Fei and Jin, and a parent, Zhang, to a place about 130 meters from the school's south gate before he took out a knife and attacked all four victims.
Tan, who was stabbed in the neck, and Fei, who suffered head injuries, both died.
Jin and Zhang sustained injuries to the head and other parts of the body but they were not life-threatening.
Huang was caught by the school's security guards and members of the public soon after the attack.
The court said Huang had planned the attack on innocent children and his methods had been extremely brutal.
Under certain circumstances, people suffering from mental illness could be exempt from criminal responsibility and receive a lenient sentence, but this was not one of these cases.