Thread by @XinqiSu

The 25-say death inquest for ex-HKUST student #AlexChow kicked off today with Chow’s father and a female police commander being the first two called to the witness stand.

For the first time in slightly over one year, Chow’s parents appeared in public and Chow’s father spoke...

...about Alex, his only child with his wife Lee Lai-lai.

Alex was founding lying in a puddle of blood on the ground of Carpark A of Sheung Tak Estate in Tseung Kwan O in the midnight between 3&4 Nov. He was certified dead in the morning of 8 Nov, nearly three months...

...after his 22nd birthday. Around the time Alex fell in the carpark, riot police were dispersing protesters in Sheung Tak areas, deploying tear gas and other anti-riot weapons. After Alex’s death, the Operation Dawn citywide roadblocking protests soon reached its climax, when...

...battles at CUHK and PolyU shocked the city and the world, leaving wounds that are yet to heal today.

In this #thread I will lay out what Alex’s father Chow Tak-ming, his two teachers at UST told the court about Alex today. For many in the city, this may be the closest we...

...may ever get to this young man.

Alex was born to Chow Tak-ming and Lee Lai-lai on 13 August 1997 in Tsan Yuk Hospital in HK Island West. He was the first and only child of this couple who just tied the knot in 1996.

Soon after Alex was born, the family of three moved...

...from Sha Tin to Beverly Garden near Sheung Tak Estate as the family got drawn for a government subsidised flat - something considered more precious than winning a lottery in the city starving for land and housing.

The family of three had lived in Beverly Garden since...

In father Chow’s impression, Alex was a quiet and normal kid. “He might be more open up in front of his friends but less so in front of me and his mother,” Chow told court. “But I am also a son to my parents. I understand that sometimes I wouldn’t want to say it when I...

...got what my parents meant to say.”

Father Chow said Alex would tell when he had issues, and he would always join the celebrating dinners when it was birthday of a senior member in the extended families. The family of three would travel abroad from time to time as well.

Father Chow recalled that Alex joined some marches in 2019 but he didn’t know much in details as Alex never talked about it. “He would WhatsApp us when he was about to return home,” Chow said. So he didn’t pay much attention when Alex left home in late night on 3 Nov.

It was around 11:45pm on 3 Nov. Chow was watching TV with his wife in the living room. Alex was ready to leave home carrying a black backpack and a filled blue water bottle. He was in a black shortsleeved T shirt, a pair of grey short pants, black sneakers and a black cap.

“You are going out that late?” Chow asked his son.
Alex didn’t reply.
“Be careful if you are heading out,” Chow reminded, as he learned about Stanford between protesters and riot police in news.
Alex remained muted and walked out of door.

One hour later at 12:45pm, Chow Whatsapped Alex telling him police fired tear gas.
Alex replied in two minutes, asking his parents to shut the windows at home.
Chow said he had no further communication with Alex after that, and Alex’s latest time online was 1am on 4 Nov.

Around 2am, Chow and his wife were waken by knock on their apartment door by Alex’s secondary schoolmates. “They said Alex fell from a third floor and was being sent to Queen Elizabeth Hospital,” Chow said. The parents rushed to the hospital and only saw their son in coma.

While waiting for Alex to finish the first brain surgery, the parents got returned their son’s clothes, wallet, backpack and smartphone. They didn’t try to turn on or open the phone until police arrived at their home a week later to collect the phone and other devices as exhibits

In the early morning of 8 Nov, the exhausted parents were urgently called back to the hospital, where doctors had to tell them there was no way to save Alex. “I didn’t talk to the doctors. My wife did. I had to control my emotions,” Chow said. Alex was certified that morning.

Back home, the parents decided to dispose Alex blood-stained T shirt, underwear and short pants while keeping the backpack, cap and sneakers after washing it. “There was so much blood. It disgusted me and made my uneasy,” Chow explained.

On 12 Nov, police arrived at the Chows’ and collected a number of Alex’s belongings as exhibits including his mobile phone, iPad, MacBook Pro and a desktop computer. Police told father Chow they could not open Alex’s phone but they opened his iPad.

Father Chow, who doesn’t seem sophisticated in digital devices, said he could not remember what ways the police told him about opening Alex’s iPad.
In the last bit of his testimony, father Chow were shown over 30 CCTV images and asked if he recognised the figure...

...captured in the image was Alex. When reading one of the images, father Chow said to himself after answering to the court, “Ah, he seemed looking into the camera and smiled.”

——Teachers’ words——

Lee Yuen-ching, a PE teacher managing the netball team of HKUST, said ...

...Alex was recruited in Oct 2018, soon after he was admitted as a second-year student in UST.
The team trains two hours every Saturday afternoon and Alex had an 80% attendance rate.
In the year 19/20, Alex became the promotion secretary of the team. He played...

...his last match on 30 Oct 2019, four days before the fall. Lee said the team had never receive any sports injury report from Alex.

Lee Yuen-yee is Alex’s English teacher in the court of technical communications. Except for the two lectures during the add-drop period...

Alex had attended all classes until 31 Oct 2019, three days before the fall.
Lee said Alex was “responsible” “focused” and “had good relationship with classmates”. Politics was never discussed in class, Lee said, and Alex had never appeared to be frustrated.

#thread ends