THE TROUBLES of a 42-year-old Chinese national who allegedly went on a car-snatching spree at knifepoint around the Ashaiman area seem far from over, as he has been identified as the killer of another Chinese national at Hotel Koreana at Tema Community 12.
The suspect, Chen Shicai, who was earlier arrested by a police night patrol team around 3:00am on the dawn of Wednesday April 17, 2013, was reported to have fled the hotel room he shared with the deceased, whose name DAILY GUIDE gathered as Rihui Wang, after the dastardly act.
A police source told DAILY GUIDE that Chen Shicai secretly left the hotel room shortly after killing his friend who had earlier travelled from Dunkwa to Accra in the company of his Ghanaian driver.
Narrating the latest incident to DAILY GUIDE, the source noted that it was after a story and photograph of Chen Shicai was published in the DAILY GUIDE that the Community 11 Police Station contacted the deceased’s driver to come and verify if the suspect was the man believed to have murdered his boss.
The driver identified the suspect as the man whom he and his deceased boss picked from the Kotoka Airport on April 16, 2013.
The driver told the police that prior to their trip to Accra from Dunkwa where the deceased was based and engaged in small scale mining, the deceased had mentioned to him that they were to meet his friend at the airport, after which they were to proceed to a hotel in Tema.
The suspect, the deceased and the driver, later that evening checked in at the hotel where the suspect and the deceased agreed to share one room while the driver slept in the car within the hotel premises.
It was not clear when the suspect allegedly murdered his pal, but it was believed the crime took place before mid-night.
Around 10:00am on April 17, the driver grew apprehensive and reportedly drew the attention of a receptionist of the hotel that his boss had not emerged from his room.
The fears of the driver heightened around 6:00pm when he failed to reach the deceased on his mobile phone after several attempts to contact him. He reportedly went back to the receptionist and pleaded with her to check his boss’s hotel room.
Finally when a spare key was used to open the room, Rihui Wang was found lying dead in a pool of blood. The driver, together with some officials of the hotel, immediately reported the murder to the Community 11 Police.
The suspect, Chen Shicai, according to the source, had not denied the murder and was reported to have stated that he and the deceased fought the previous night over a blanket in their hotel room.
‘He claimed through an interpreter that he punched his friend in the face and on the head during the fight which resulted in his death. On a visit to the scene, the police found a heavy glass cigarette tray stained with blood,’ the source noted.
With the week almost ended, Chen Shicai was expected to be given fresh charges apart from the one he was initially arrested for, which was carjacking.
A Circuit Court in Tema where he was earlier sent, did not sit, so he was sent back to police custody.
Flashback
On Wednesday April 17, DCOP Maxwell Atigane, the Tema Regional Police commander told DAILY GUIDE that at about 3:00am Chen Shicai stopped a taxi driver, George Kodua, who was in charge of a Kia Pride with registration number GE 1923-X around the Tema Community 9 roundabout and succeeded in snatching the taxi from its owner at knifepoint.
He subsequently abandoned the taxi after he was involved in an accident and tried to snatch another from its owner when a police patrol team chanced upon him and arrested him.
He was holding a large butcher’s knife on him at the time of the arrest.
It was believed that he tried snatching those taxis to escape after the murder.
From Razak Mardorgyz Abubakar, Tema