On 30 October 2010, at Downtown East, Singapore, 19-year-old Darren Ng Wei Jie (), a Singaporean student from Republic Polytechnic, was slashed by 12 youths from a rival gang after a staring incident between one of Ng's friends and one of these youths attacking him. Ng suffered from 28 knife wounds and died in Changi General Hospital five hours after the incident. The case was classified as murder, and the police arrested all the suspects. Six of them were charged with murder, but all except one were sentenced to serve lengthy jail terms with caning for culpable homicide (the sixth was instead found guilty of rioting), while the others were sentenced to varied jail terms and caning for rioting.
Crime Fatal gang fight On 30 October 2010, a previous conflict between the leaders of two rival gangs, 21-year-old Dickson Ng Teck Seng of Fong Hong San (Phoenix Hill) and 18-year-old Stilwell Ong Keat Pin () of Salakau (or gang 369), led to the two deciding to meet at Downtown East for a 1-on-1 fight. Ong brought along 11 other youths to meet up with Dickson Ng and armed themselves with knives and other weapons; however, Dickson Ng did not show up, instead sending a few of his gang members in his place. One of them was 19-year-old student Darren Ng Wei Jie (unrelated to Dickson Ng), a second-year industrial and operations management student from Republic Polytechnic. One of them had a tense conversation with Ong, and one of Ng's friends stared at one of Ong's friends. The situation escalated when Ong brandished a chilli sauce bottle but accidentally dropped it. Ng perceived it as a hostile move and whipped out a baton for self-defence, which led to Ong and his gang attacking Ng and his friends.
Outnumbered, Ng and his friends fled the scene and Ong's gang gave chase, passing many witnesses and some crowded shops in Downtown East Mall. After running some distance, Ng crashed into a glass door outside Sakura International Buffet Restaurant and before he could recover, Ong's gang caught up. Upon catching Ng, they used screwdrivers, choppers and knives to stab and slash him. There were many witnesses, including some young children, who were horrified by the violence.
Eventually, the gang left, leaving Ng in a pool of blood outside Sakura. He had a total of 28 slash wounds on his body, mostly on his left limbs and below his right rib cage. One of Ng's friends returned to tend to him while they waited for an ambulance; Ng was soon brought to Changi General Hospital for emergency treatment. Five hours after the incident, at about 10:55 pm on the night of 30 October 2010, Darren Ng was pronounced dead. The recorded cause of Ng's death was a fatal stab wound to his neck which caused massive bleeding.
Funeral and reactions to death Given the fact that the incident occurred in a Saturday evening, in front of a large crowd consisting of people of all ages, the feelings of the public had run high and the pro-death penalty advocates voiced out for the hanging of the main culprits for their part in the murder of the young student. This fact had also reinforced the blatant disregard the offenders had for the law. The government stepped in to implement guidance programmes to reach out for those at-risk young people and teenagers who were vulnerable to joining gangs. The violence by the gang killing also sent ripples among the emotions of the public.
On 3 November 2010, Darren Ng's funeral was held. It was attended by hundreds of family members and friends, which included Ng's parents and elder sister.
In an article reporting Ng's funeral and memorial service, Ng was described as a "cheerful" young man with "a heart of gold" by those who know him. It was reported that during his secondary school years, there would be weekly phone calls made by Ng's teachers to his parents, indicating Ng as a rebellious student.
Ng's father, Francis Ng, however, said that when his son was dismissed from the polytechnic three weeks prior to his death, Ng wrote an appeal letter by himself; knowing this, the bereaved father knew that his son has grown up and wanted to quit his rebellious ways. He said at the memorial service that his son died because of his "love for his friends".
Darren Ng's elder sister, Debbie, described her brother as a "little older brother" to her, saying that although he always made his family worry about him, they knew that he dearly loved them. She said, "Jie Jie (a Chinese term for "elder sister") misses you".
Ng's then girlfriend said that her boyfriend, whom she dated for seven months prior to his death, always talk about his friends and family, and a "joker" who would always make those around him laugh. One of Ng's childhood friends said of his friend as one who always wanted "the best for his friends".
In addition, Ng's friends from the secret society gang which Ng associated with also attended the funeral. When seeing reporters at the scene, some of them turned aggressive and confronted them for not giving any peace to Ng's bereaved family, threatening them with fists, covering their cameras or raising their voices, which disrupted the originally peaceful and quiet funeral.
In 2011, Marvin Ng, a childhood friend and next-door neighbour of Darren Ng, revealed in an interview that he knew Ng since five years old and studied in the same primary school (Rosyth School) as him. Marvin stated that at the time of Ng's death, he was in preparation for his GCE A-levels, which was a week away. He said that he was sad to hear that Ng died from the grievous assault at Downtown East and when he attended Ng's funeral, he could not bring himself to continue to study for his national exams. However, the then-19-year-old Millennia Institute student said that despite his grief, he was grateful for his family and Ng's parents, who supported him throughout the tragic period and his exam period and finally, he attained three 'A's for his A-level results.
Arrests and charges After the incident, the police first arrested four of the youths involved; one of them resisted arrest and while making his escape, he accidentally suffered from a head injury and had to be hospitalised. Three of these arrested youths—Tang Jia Min, 21; Ho Wui Ming (), 20 and Chen Wei Zhen (), 19—were charged with murder. The fourth youth who resisted arrest and was hospitalised, 18-year-old Edward Tay Wei Loong (), was placed under arrest in the hospital and charged with murder. The other eight youths were also eventually arrested and charged—two with murder and six with rioting—for their part in the attack on Darren Ng. Stilwell Ong was one of those two people facing the murder charge, the other was 16-year-old Louis Tong Qing Yao (), a bespectacled secondary school student who also faced charges of loan shark harassment. Tang Jia Min, one of those youths charged with murder, eventually had his charge reduced to rioting, while the other five accused of murder, identified to be the main attackers of Ng, still had their charges of murder against them.
As the offence of murder under Singapore law warrants a mandatory death sentence, if they were found guilty, these people, except for 16-year-old Louis Tong, will be sentenced to death. Should he be found guilty and convicted of murder, Louis Tong will instead be sentenced to life imprisonment, since he was under 18 years old at the time of the crime and thus he cannot be hanged (under Singapore law, offenders convicted of murder, drug trafficking or other capital offences will not be sentenced to death if they were under 18 years old at the time of the offences. Instead, they would be sentenced to life imprisonment or indefinite detention).
Sentences of those charged with rioting The first gang member to be sentenced was 19-year-old Jason Chew Wei Beng. He was brought to court nearly a year and a half after the incident, where he pleaded guilty to rioting, and another offence of causing hurt to a 20-year-old man at Bishan Bus Interchange in April 2010. On 7 March 2012, Chew was sentenced to 4 years' imprisonment, and given 6 strokes of the cane. Two months later, Chew's fellow gang member Puay De Feng was sentenced to a total of 5 years' imprisonment after pleading guilty to rioting and an unrelated crime of voluntarily causing hurt to a Korean national named Yoon Sang-jun at St James Power Station, in which his sentences are ordered to run consecutively (4 years and 9 months for rioting and 3 months for voluntarily causing hurt). Puay, who was 19 at the time of the Downtown East incident, was also given 6 strokes of the cane.
On 19 July 2012, four more youths were convicted of rioting and sentenced on the same date. Tang Jia Min, who initially faced a murder charge like the five main culprits, received the heaviest sentence of 6 years and 3 months' imprisonment and 6 strokes of the cane for playing a more instrumental role in the crime. Nineteen-year-old Ho Wei Quan was sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment and 6 strokes of the cane. Twenty-two-year-old Lewis Wee Jun Jie was sentenced to 4 years and 10 months' imprisonment and 6 strokes of the cane. Twenty-year-old Chong Rui Hong received the lightest sentence out of the four—4 years' imprisonment and 3 strokes of the cane.
On 24 September 2012, the seventh youth Ng Wei Lun, aged 20, was sentenced to 3 years and 3 months' imprisonment and 3 strokes of the cane, a sentence comparatively lighter than that of Chong Rui Hong. Ng Wei Lun was the last gang member to be dealt with after all his friends, as his date of sentencing was more than two weeks after the sentencing of the five main culprits for their major roles in the death of Darren Ng Wei Jie.
Trial of the five main culprits Eventually, on 30 July 2012, the five youths—Stilwell Ong Keat Pin, Chen Wei Zhen, Ho Wui Ming, Louis Tong Qing Yao, and Edward Tay Wei Loong—saw their charges reduced to a lesser charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which meant that they would not face the death sentence, but either life imprisonment or up to 20 years in jail with caning. All five youths, who were represented by veteran lawyer Subhas Anandan, pleaded guilty to the reduced charges as they stood trial before Justice Tay Yong Kwang of the High Court of Singapore. Additionally, Tong admitted to a few charges of loan shark harassment and Ho also submitted a plea of guilty to two unrelated charges of theft and mischief.
The mitigation plea and sentencing was postponed due to Subhas having to go on medical leave in midst of the closing submissions due to poor health. In their closing submissions, the prosecution had urged for a sentence of at least 15 years' imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane for Ong, who was not the oldest but the leader of the gang and mastermind of the attack on Darren Ng. The prosecution also asked for a sentence of between 12 and 15 years' imprisonment and 10 strokes of the cane each for the other four.
In mitigation, Subhas Anandan, who returned from his sick leave, argued that the courts should show some leniency to the boys in view of their young age and give them a chance of rehabilitation. He acknowledged that the boys deserved whatever consequences they have to face for such a heinous and violent act, given that a life had been lost as a result. However, he argued that the tragedy will only be augmented if young offenders like the five young defendants were being sentenced to long periods of incarceration behind bars, which will also destroy their lives like how Ng's life had been destroyed by the boys themselves, and doing so will not be able to bring back the life that has already been lost.