BEIJING — China’s Public Security Ministry is investigating a shooting in which a police officer killed an unarmed traveler in front of his mother and three small children at a train station, officials said Tuesday.
Rising calls for a full, independent investigation have followed the shooting as the public has become uneasy about the newly granted power for normal Chinese police officers to carry guns, and has questioned whether the police can use lethal weapons responsibly.
Already, several shootings have occurred where the use of a gun by police was questioned but never fully accounted for.
‘‘When authorities fail to provide rational explanations for pulling the trigger and to handle such cases in a fair and just way, police officers will continue to use their guns blindly, raising the risks that social tensions would only one day erupt uncontrollably,’’ said Zhao Chu, a Shanghai-based independent commentator, who says police violence can become habitual if not adequately checked by law.
In the latest case, local railway police in the northeastern town of Qing’an said the officer opened fire after Xu Chunhe, 45, attacked him and tried to seize his gun.
However, a clip of private video circulating online shows the officer using a long stick to beat Xu, who tried to dodge the blows and then tried to pull the stick away from him. A small child was heard asking the father not to fight but to go home.
Local authorities have yet to release the full surveillance footage of the May 2 shooting.
The ministry confirmed a state media report that it had dispatched a work team to Qing’an to gather evidence and question witnesses, and said it would release results later.
Following a deadly attack by members of the ethnic minority Uighurs at the train station in the southwestern city of Kunming last year, Beijing began to allow first-line patrol officers to carry firearms in a country where violent crimes also are on the rise accompanying intensifying social tensions.
However, the move has raised concerns over whether the newly trained patrol officers are responsible enough in the use of firearms. Experts worry that the training would focus too much on technical aspects, such as firing accuracy, and not enough on legal aspects, such as when to draw the gun.
Within months of the new decree, at least four people were fatally shot by police.