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BEIJING, CHINA - THE man who murdered an American tourist in Beijing before killing himself acted out of and anger and despair over failures in his life, police in his native city were quoted as saying in state media.
Tang Yongming, 47, stabbed Todd Bachman - the father-in-law of US Olympic volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon - to death in Olympic host city Beijing on Saturday in an attack that also left his wife, Barbara, seriously injured.
According to police in his hometown of Hangzhou in east China, Tang 'took his anger out on society' in an example of 'individual, extreme behaviour', the official Xinhua news agency said late on Sunday.
An investigation found that Tang, who had no previous criminal record, used to work at a factory in Hangzhou, but had resigned, Xinhua said.
He had two failed marriages, and his 21-year-old son was sentenced to six months in prison for theft this year, after being detained for 10 days in May last year for fraud, the news agency said.
In 2006, Tang moved into a rented house after selling his apartment, Xinhua quoted police as saying, and the 200,000 yuan (S$42,210) he got from the sale was spent by his son.
Tang moved out of that house on Aug 1, saying he was moving somewhere else to do business, Xinhua said.
He called his son that day, saying he would only return to Hangzhou if his business was successful.
Tang was next heard of when he stabbed Bachman and his wife on Saturday, as well as their Chinese tour guide, and then committed suicide by throwing himself off the Drum Tower, a popular tourist site in Beijing.
The attack occurred even though China had deployed massive security in Beijing for the Olympics, with around 150,000 police and other personnel on patrol across the city. -- AFP
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