Bio

Liu Hongwen was born in 1976. By 2004, at age 28, he was working as a teacher at Guangyi Centre Elementary School in Linwu County, in the Chenzhou prefecture of Hunan Province, China, having been employed there for approximately one year. He had a documented history of mental illness prior to the attack.

Murder Story

On September 30, 2004, Liu entered a grade-one classroom at the school and began attacking children, killing four of them, before moving into other classrooms and continuing his assault, which also included attacks on at least four teachers. In total, approximately 16 students and teachers were wounded in addition to the four fatalities. During the incident, Liu took roughly 64 to 65 students hostage.

Following negotiations with a county government official, Liu surrendered to police the same day. Before being taken into custody, he reportedly told the students he had been holding hostage, "I am a good teacher."

The families of each of the four children killed were given 77,000 yuan in compensation by the school. The attack was not reported in mainland Chinese media until roughly a week afterward. It was one of several similar attacks on schoolchildren in China during the preceding two months, including incidents in Beijing, Suzhou, and Shandong province.

During Liu's trial, expert psychiatric testimony identified him as suffering from schizophrenia. He was subsequently found not guilty of the killings by reason of insanity.