Wah, man took a picture of someone smoking & was stabbed

Now and then, we have heard of cases or even experienced them ourselves of unnecessary fights that occurred due to unhappiness or anger. One such case happened between two men in May last year, where Mr Yue Tuck Choy and Mr Tay Thiam Huat, both 59, got into a fight after Mr Yue complained that Mr Tay was smoking at a non-smoking zone.

It was Mr Yue’s 59th birthday and things took a turn for the worst. He planned to spend his birthday by buying takeaway back home to have a nice dinner with his family. However, things did not go as planned. The night started out with Mr Yue and his friend at Blk 475, Choa Chu Kang Avenue 3 coffee shop, waiting for their food. While waiting, they decided to have some beer.

What caused the fight
That was when they saw Mr Tay smoking in a non-smoking zone at the coffee shop and it triggered Mr Yue’s anger. The latter proceeded to complain loudly to his friend about what Mr Tay was doing, hoping that Mr Tay would hear it and get the hint.

When Mr Tay failed to do so, Mr Yue, took out his phone to take a picture of Mr Tay smoking and told him off, saying that he would show the picture to the police. Mr Tay got angry and grabbed Mr Yue’s shirt during the argument that quickly got heated. Mr Yue then retaliated by pushing Mr Yue to the ground before other customers quickly rushed to separate the two and stop the fight.

The fight was not over 
Mr Tay then decided to shake Mr Yue’s hand as a gesture of apology before leaving the coffee shop. Thinking that everything was ok, Mr Yue went back to drinking his beer, in accompany with his friend. However, in a short span of 15 minutes later, Mr Tay came back angrier, this time with a 31cm kitchen knife.

In a hasty moment, Mr Tay stabbed Mr Yue in the back, narrowly missing the kidney on his right. Fortunately, Mr Yue’s friend managed to remove the weapon from Mr Tay after a struggle. Mr Tay, without a weapon, fled the scene in a panic and headed for nearby HDB blocks to hide away. Mr Yue and his friend even gave chase but stopped afterwards as Mr Yue was feeling weaker from his stab wound.

He called his son, Mr Jonathan Yue, 28 who was an ambulance paramedic and told him about the incident. Being a caring father, he told his son that he would be ok going to the hospital by himself and that his son should collect the takeaway food from the coffee shop.

After inspecting the wound and deeming it not life threatening, Mr Jonathan allowed his father to go to the hospital alone, where he has stitches for the wound.

The aftermath
The next day, Mr Tay surrendered himself at the Choa Chu Kang Neighbourhood Police Centre, where following procedures saw him standing trial in court. He was not represented by a lawyer and said that he is regretful for what happened and apologised to Mr Yue. He was sentenced to jail for 8 months for causing voluntarily hurt.

He also paid a compensation amount of $1,063 to Mr Yue for medical expenses. Fortunately, Mr Yue recovered from his injury and has forgiven Mr Tay for what had happened during an arranged meet-up. Though the incident is behind them now, Mr Yue is still left with both physical and emotional scars, including traumas where he would be frightened whenever he hear footsteps from behind him.

This article was first published on goodyfeed.com goodyfeed.com