Man Sitting in Smoking Zone Bought Saw To Attack Smoker After His Request For Him To Stop Smoking Was Refused

Smoking zones as defined by yellow boxes are supposed safe havens for smokers.

In Singapore, they can be found along Orchard Road, in army camps and coffee shops among other places.

In such zones, smokers can supposedly light up carefree from fear of persecution and damning looks from other smoke-free pedestrians.

But safe couldn’t have been the adjective one smoker would have associated with the ubiquitous yellow box after a violent fight.

Fight At Coffee Shop in Lorong 25A Geylang

The fight broke out at a coffee shop in Lorong 25A Geylang two days ago on 3 April 2019.

Two men, aged 51 and 53, were taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital as a result of the brawl.

A video on Stomp showed a bald man, aged 51, the supposed non-smoking assailant, being pinned down by a few others on a coffee shop table.

Blood can be seen on his shiny scalp along with more blood trail on the table.

He was subsequently arrested for voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapon.

Is the Yellow Box for Smokers and/or smoke from their Cigarette as Well?

According to Shin Min Daily News, “the fight broke out after the men argued over secondhand smoke. They had both been sitting in the smoking zone at the coffee shop.”

According to Seehua News, the smoker, aged 53, allegedly kept nudging his chair nearer to the bald man, leading to smoke wafting over to the bald man’s general area.

The bald man then took to reminding the smoker that smoke from his cigarette was wafting into his area.

However this did not sit well with the smoker who allegedly stood up and shouted at the bald man, insisting that he was still well within the smoking area.

At this point, the bald man stood up and left.

See-Saw Coming your way

In most cases, this might have been the end of the matter.

In this incident though, the bald man had apparently been angered enough to have purchased a 30cm saw from a nearby hardware store.

That, or he might have anger issues to begin with. 

After 10 minutes, he promptly returned to where the smoker was while brandishing his shiny new toy.

Not satisfied with the saw as just a totem of his anger, he threatened the smoker and ultimately decided to attack the smoker with it.

In retaliation, the smoker hit him on his head with a beer mug.

According to Straits Times, “the bald man suffered a cut on his head while the smoker suffered a laceration from his right ear to cheek.”

In this Stomp video, one of the men holding the assailant down appeared to have had a gash on his cheek with a bloody tower hanging over his shoulder.

Towards the end of the video and off-camera, someone can be heard saying: “The police are here.”

While the assailant was presumably a non-smoker, you’ll be hard-pressed not to wonder aloud: “What in the hell was he smoking?”