HK expert: Friendly fire 'may have' killed bus hostages

Gunfire from Manila police rescuers may have killed Hong Kong hostages in last year's Manila bus tragedy, a Hong Kong police ballistics expert said at a Hong Kong inquest Friday. That would contradict the Philippine government probe body last year which concluded that all eight of the dead hostages were killed by Mendoza. Hong Kong police ballistics expert Superintendent Raymond Chan Siu-kei said bullet fragments could have hit the hostages sitting inside. The court was told that 23 bullets entered the bus from outside, while 62 bullet marks were found on the exterior of the bus. Chan explained that if the bullets had managed to penetrate the tempered glass windows, they would have disintegrated. However, he noted the fragments were still powerful enough to injure, or even kill, people inside, Radio Television Hong Kong reported Friday evening. Eight Hong Kong tourists were killed along with their hostage-taker, dismissed Senior Inspector Rolando Mendoza, in the Aug. 23 crisis Mendoza had taken a busload of tourists hostage in Manila and demanded his reinstatement in the police force, creating a 11-hour stand-off with the Manila police that ended with a botched rescue attempt watched around the globe. The Philippine government probe body that investigated the tragedy concluded that all the dead from Hong Kong were killed by Mendoza, who was himself killed by a sniper. The Hong Kong police have asserted that the evidence does not support that conclusion, further fueling speculation that not only did the Manila police fail to rescue the hostages but their gunfire could have killed some of them. Last Thursday, the court heard that tests on bullet fragments taken from the eight fatalities gave no clear indication of whether they were shot by their hostage-taker or by a police rescue team. Also during Thursday's hearing, a ballistics expert testified that the victims were shot from a distance of at least 16 inches. Witnesses at the inquest earlier testified Mendoza initially had no intention to harm the hostages, but got angry when he saw on a television monitor inside the bus his brother being arrested. Hong Kong had invited more than 100 Filipino witnesses to the inquest but more than 70 declined the invitation. — LBG/HS, GMA News