According to the WeChat official account of the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court, on April 19, 2024, the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court in Guangdong Province carried out the death sentence on the criminal Wen Qingyun in accordance with the execution order issued by the Supreme People's Court. The Guangzhou Municipal People's Procuratorate is to appoint personnel to supervise the scene in accordance with law.
At about 17:00 on January 11, 2023, in order to vent his personal emotions, Wen Qingyun deliberately drove into pedestrians and road facilities in Tianhe District, Guangzhou City, causing serious consequences such as many casualties and property damage.
On April 18, 2023, the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court sentenced Wen Qingyun to death and deprived him of his political rights for life for the crime of endangering public safety by dangerous means. After Wen Qingyun appealed, the Guangdong Provincial High People's Court ruled to reject the appeal, uphold the original judgment, and report to the Supreme People's Court for approval in accordance with law. During the review period, the Supreme People's Court interrogated Wen Qingyun in accordance with the law, carefully listened to and reviewed the opinions put forward by the defense lawyers, and found upon review that the facts ascertained in the first-instance judgment and the second-instance judgment were clear, the evidence was credible and sufficient, the conviction was accurate, and the sentence was appropriate. The trial proceedings were lawful. Wen Qingyun's death sentence was approved in accordance with law.
Before the execution of the death sentence, the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court arranged for Wen Qingyun to meet with his close relatives to fully protect the lawful rights and interests of the convict being executed.
Previously reported
The official Weibo of the Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau issued a briefing on January 11, 2023: At 17:25 on January 11, a traffic accident occurred at the intersection of Tiyu East Road, Tianhe Road, Guangzhou, resulting in 5 deaths and 13 injuries. After receiving the alarm, the Guangzhou traffic police quickly dispatched personnel to the scene to deal with it and assisted the medical personnel in treating the injured. At present, the driver involved Wen (male, 22 years old, from Jieyang, Guangdong) has been controlled by the police, and the accident is being further investigated and handled.
According to a report by The Paper on May 12, 2023, at about 17:00 on January 11, 2023, near Tianhe Road and Tiyu East Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou, a BMW X3 repeatedly hit pedestrians and vehicles. Multiple videos from the scene showed many people on the road injured and fell to the ground, and the man who caused the accident had scattered money after parking and tried to escape.
Image source: The Paper
The driver who caused the accident was named Wen Qingyun. According to the first-instance verdict, Wen Qingyun was born in April 2000, has a college education, is registered in Jiexi County, Jieyang City, Guangdong, and lives in Qishi Town, Dongguan City, and was detained on January 11, 2023, detained the next day, and arrested on January 14.
In March 2023, the Guangzhou Municipal Procuratorate prosecuted Wen Qingyun on suspicion of endangering public safety by dangerous means. The public prosecution alleged that at about 17 o'clock on the day of the incident, Wen Qingyun drove a car on Tiyu East Road, Tianhe Road, Tianhe South 2nd Road and other sections of Tianhe District, Guangzhou, and continuously collided with passing crowds, traffic police, and electric bicycles, causing many casualties and damage to public property. Subsequently, Wen Qingyun was unable to continue driving because the front of the car was stuck in the guardrail, so he got out of the car and tried to flee the scene, but was arrested by the public security officers and the masses who rushed to the police.
The first-instance verdict rendered by the Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court disclosed that the incident caused a total of six deaths, of which five died on the spot and one died on January 19 after rescue efforts failed, and more than 20 people were injured to varying degrees, of which 10 were first-class minor injuries, two were second-degree minor injuries, 13 were slightly injured, three were not slightly injured, and one was not found to be obviously mechanically violent.
In addition, during the collision of his car, Wen Qingyun caused damage to many cars, electric vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles, guardrails, mobile phones and other items to varying degrees, causing a loss of more than 70,000 yuan in public property.
According to the first-instance verdict, Wen Qingyun confessed that about a year before the case, he successively posted content on Douyin about the use of brand-name bags and luxury cars, packaging himself as a "rich second generation" to pursue the opposite sex. Not long after, an online blogger posted a number of videos to expose his false identity as a "rich second generation", making him lose face and feel that his life had fallen into a trough. On January 11, 2023, he decided to completely let go of the past and go to a city with a better environment. Before the trip, he went to the supermarket to buy two Chinese brand cigarettes with a "Huabei" overdraft and wanted to give them to his grandfather, but he was scolded by his parents for spending money indiscriminately, so he took 6,000 yuan of private money and drove his father's BMW X3 to Guangzhou Baiyun Airport. After arriving at the airport, because there was no parking space in the parking lot and nearby hotels, he went to Tianhe District in Guangzhou instead, during which he had an argument with the toll station staff and broke the front windshield of the BMW.
Wen Qingyun said that when he drove to the intersection of Tiyu East Road in Tianhe District, he saw many passers-by crossing the crosswalk, and suddenly had the idea of releasing his inner depression, so he directly accelerated and drove towards the crowd.
Source: WeChat public account of Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court, The Paper, China News Service
Editor: Yiren