Chinese court delivers suspended death sentence for primary school SUV attack

The man who drove into a group of parents and school children in Hunan in central China last month has been given a suspended death sentence.

The announcement on Monday included confirmation of the attacker’s motivation when his white SUV rammed into the group outside a primary school injuring 30, including 18 children, just after 7.30am on November 19.

The speed of the judgment was notably rare and comes amid rising public safety concerns after a spate of violent episodes in China this year. It is also unusual for motivation to be included in the short notices which appear after such cases.

According to a notice published by the Changde Intermediate People’s Court on Monday, Huang Wen, 39, was sentenced to death, with a two-year reprieve, and deprived of political rights for life after being found guilty of endangering public safety.

The court found that he was “seeking to vent his personal emotions due to investment losses and family disputes” when he carried out the attack, “accelerating and continuously ramming into a crowd of elementary school students and others”.

When his car stalled, Huang got out of the vehicle and continued his attack with a weapon. Seven individuals were seriously wounded, 16 had moderate injuries and a further seven sustained minor injuries, among them 18 schoolchildren, it said.

“[He] targeted a large and unspecified number of innocent elementary school students as his primary victims, driven by despicable motives and exhibiting a profound degree of malice,” the court ruled.