Ex Auxiliary Police Officer Nearly Shot People in Hougang When He Was Culling Crows

In case you didn’t know, guns are banned in Singapore.

The authorities take gun control so seriously that even pellet guns or airsoft guns are banned.

While police officers carry firearms around with them, they rarely discharge them. Considering what goes on in some countries, many regard this as a good thing.

No resident in Singapore, for instance, would walk the streets afraid that they’d be shot at for any reason.

That is, unless there are some crows nearby.

Ex Auxiliary Police Officer Nearly Shot People in Hougang When He Was Culling Crows

Singapore has a big crow problem.

In the past, the government has hired private security companies to go after these pesky birds, according to The New York Times. 

Last year, an auxiliary police officer was deployed to cull crows in Hougang, presumably because crows flocked there after hearing about the porridge at Sin Heng Kee.

But for some reason, it didn’t occur to the Certis officer, Lance Corporal Eric Kow, that shooting a pellet shotgun in the middle of the day might alarm a few people.

On 12 Feb last year, Kow was in a car with his then colleague, Corporal Joseph Goh Chin Peng, a part-time auxiliary police officer.

At 3.30pm that day, they saw some crows near a block of flats in Hougang, and Kow alighted with a loaded shotgun, leaving his body-worn camera behind.

Instead of cordoning off the area and making sure residents were practising a pre-coronavirus sort of safe distancing, Kow fired multiple pellets at the crows, even though several buildings were in his line of fire.

Multiple pellets ended up lodged in the front door of a flat 23m away, which could have easily been a resident if they opened it at that exact moment.

While the probability of causing a fatal wound was low, it could certainly have caused injury, according to The New Paper.

“If the pellets had hit a human body, they could have caused skin perforation and would have endangered the personal safety of other persons in the area,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Gail Wong.

Jailed For 4 Weeks

On Wednesday (29 July), Koh, 23, was sentenced to jail for four weeks after pleading guilty to performing a rash act that could endanger the safety of others.

Goh, the safety officer who was with him, was supposed to display warning signs and cordon off the area.

He could have at least shouted “HEY WE’RE ABOUT TO SHOOT A GUN AT SOME CROWS, PLEASE STAND CLEAR!”, but no.

He also failed to redirect human and vehicular traffic.

Goh was fined $2,500 after pleading guilty to abetting Koh in committing the offence.

Both men were dismissed from service on 15 April last year.

According to the prosecutor, neither officer deployed the warning sign or cordoned the area off because they “did not want to alert the crows.”

They know crows can’t read, right?

After all that, Kow only managed to kill two crows and left the scene with their carcasses.

The woman whose innocent door was abused with pellets later alerted the police.

Fortunately, no one was hurt in the incident. Except those two crows, of course.

A Murder of Crows

You might be wondering, why do we have to get rid of crows?

If you’re asking this question, you’ve probably never had a crow swoop down and peck the heck out of your head.

In 2017, a woman had to be sent to the hospital after a crow attacked her in Pasir Ris, leaving several lacerations.

And in 2018, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority received two reports of crow attacks in Toa Payoh.

Typically, after such reports, the authorities will conduct a crow culling exercise to remove some of the crows in the area.

To avoid crow attacks, you should steer clear of their young and never walk near their territory.

But if you are attacked, do not try fighting back, because crows apparently have better facial recognition capabilities than your iPhone.

Instead, take an alternate route and avoid dense trees because that’s where crows roost.

It’s best to avoid them altogether, actually. Crows are easily offended.

If you’re attacked by a crow or one of them looks at you funny, you can report them to the AVA at 1800 476 1600.