Victim found note with the word 'kill' days before Bendemeer knife attack

Ten days ago, a coffee shop owner found a mysterious note with an ominous message on the staircase outside his office.

The note, written in Chinese, began with one word: "Kill!" followed by "I'm not afraid of dying, let alone scared by your many CCTV cameras."

Two afternoons ago, the owner was in his office, which is a level above the coffee shop, when a man kicked open the door and charged towards him.

He was wielding a knife with a 15cm blade and shouting: "I want to kill you!"

The victim, who wanted to be known only as Mr Wu, 69, told Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Wanbao that before he could react, the man started slashing at him.

Mr Wu's son, 31, who was next door, heard the commotion and tried to stop the assailant.

"My son rushed over to save me and ended up getting hurt too. His wounds are quite deep, but thankfully he is in stable condition," Mr Wu told Shin Min Daily News.

He added that he injured his wrist while tussling with his attacker.

He said: "The knife was all bloody, and I struggled with him for about five minutes before I managed to wrestle the knife out of his hands."

In his account to Wanbao, Mr Wu said: "(The man) looked like he had superhuman strength. My left arm was slashed, and my son was slashed several times."

Just as he wrestled the attacker to the floor, two of his employees arrived and helped to pin the man down, he added.

Mr Wu said his son had a laceration on his chest and slash wounds on one of his arms.

Seeing his son bleeding badly, he went down to get help, leaving a trail of about 20 bloody footprints.

"I felt heartbroken, and I panicked when I saw that my son had lost so much blood," he said.

The police said yesterday that they were alerted to a case of dispute involving three men at an office unit at Block 27 Bendemeer Road at around 1pm on Tuesday.

A 73-year-old suspect was arrested for voluntarily causing grievous hurt with a dangerous weapon and was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH).

Mr Wu's son was also taken to TTSH while he was taken to Raffles Hospital.

The police said a weapon believed to have been used in the commission of the offence was seized. Investigations are ongoing.

The man is expected to be charged in court today.

The suspect, whose face was streaked with blood, looked dazed as he was wheeled into an ambulance on a stretcher while surrounded by police officers.

Mr Wu said he did not have grudges with anyone. He also told Wanbao that this was not the first time the attacker had caused trouble at his coffee shop.

"He's considered a regular customer, but he had a dispute with one of my employees previously. After that, he kept causing trouble," Mr Wu added.

The owner of a store nearby told Shin Min that the suspect had bought a knife and a pair of scissors from him an hour before the incident.

He said the man is a regular who would often pop by to buy newspapers.

CORDONED OFF

The police cordoned off the area for about five hours to conduct investigations and also took away closed-circuit television footage.

The man's neighbour told Shin Min that he lives alone but she had not noticed any abnormal behaviour.

She said he went to the coffee shop frequently to drink and would sometimes get drunk.

Shin Min and Wanbao also reported that the man had got into trouble before, including setting fire to a coffee shop.

It was not mentioned whether this was Mr Wu's coffee shop.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: TATIANA MOHAMAD ROSLI