Man Slashed By Fruit Knife At Tanglin Halt Says Onlookers “Did Nothing To Help”

Have you ever witnessed a crime in real life?

If yes, then what follows is usually the typical school question of if you should step in and help.

In your head, most of us probably said yes.

Understandably, it could be scary if the person committing said crime had a weapon, but if there are a bunch of people with you, maybe something could be done?

It’s unfortunate that in some cases, merely standing by has its own demerits.

Witness Of The Aftermath

So this starts out a little creepy.

On 13 October, Facebook user Kyle Huang Junyuan and his friends were at Tanglin Halt Market in the evening when they spotted a trail of blood leading to the toilet.

Unlike my natural instinct to quickly leave, Huang’s group followed it to find a middle-aged man.

The man was holding a few bags and “bleeding profusely” from his hand, according to Huang.

“It wasn’t anything life-threatening but it didn’t seem like it was going to stop any time soon.”

Huang called an ambulance afterwards.

The man was apparently robbed and wounded by someone wielding a penknife while drinking; kind of a crap way to end your day especially if you were working prior.

No Help

The heartbreaker comes when the man elaborated on the incident.

“The people who witnessed this incident just stood by and did nothing to help. He cried as he questioned us why.”

Huang goes on to say that perhaps people were likely afraid of the attacker.

Thinking about this logically, this attack must’ve been done in the open.

I want to say if multiple people took action then the attacker might’ve backed off, but once again the fear of a weapon is slightly understandable.

It still really sucks that the victim suffered for it.

Huang ends that portion of his post saying, “I hope that we can all be a little more proactive in helping people in need (unless it poses an immediate danger to yourself as well).”

For those interested in the full post, you can read it below.

Attacker Already Caught

Luckily for all parties, the suspect has already been caught.

He’s a 58-year-old man who is currently under arrest for suspected armed robbery and for this incident we mentioned above, including stealing the victim’s phone.

The attacker was charged on 15 October and according to CNA, the offence carries a jail term of between five and 20 years, and at least 12 strokes of the cane.

Though, since the attacker is above 50, he cannot be caned.

I hope this gives us a bit of reflection and thinking time, assessing if we should take action against crime alone or not.

If anything, we can at least call the police at 999 if we see any suspicious activity.