Ex-Certis Cisco officer convicted of rashly firing revolver

SINGAPORE — Although former Certis Cisco officer Gregory Lai knew full well that firing a loaded gun with another person in close proximity was a “highly risky act that could endanger a human life”, he did it anyway, said a district judge on Tuesday (Jan 24) as she convicted Lai of committing a rash act.

The 23-year-old, who had fired the gun at his workplace at Tuas Checkpoint on Aug 13, 2015, while playing a Russian roulette-style game, was also convicted of one count of obstructing the course of justice — by retrieving and hiding the spent round in a traffic wand, then flushing a different bullet down a toilet — and another count of lying to the police. 

He will be sentenced on Feb 9.

Lai, who is now working as a GrabCar driver, had conceded to lying to the police and obstructing the course of justice during a three-day trial in January. 

However, he contended that he did not actually expect that his gun would go off when the round was placed in the “2 o’clock” position in the bullet chamber, and he pulled the trigger.

Dismissing the argument, District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim said: “(We) must agree that a revolver, loaded with a live bullet, is not a toy. 

“The accused had absolutely no justification … in the absence of any threat, to remove his revolver from its holster, place a single bullet in the chamber … and (fire) it off twice, when Dzul was about a metre away from him.”

Lai’s fellow corporal Muhammad Dzul Adhar Azmi, an eyewitness to the incident, was jailed for three weeks and fined S$2,000 last October for helping Lai to dump the discharged bullet in Bedok Reservoir, as well as to not reporting his offence.

Stressing that the two officers were in a “very small, confined room” — one that measured 2.7m by 1.7m — and the bullet could have ricocheted anywhere within the room, the judge added that the fact that the revolver was pointed downwards, and not at Dzul, when Lai pulled the trigger also did not mean that the act was not rash.

“It was purely fortuitous that nothing happened to Dzul. 

“The accused made a conscious and deliberate decision to take the risk that nothing would happen,” she said.

For the rash act of endangering human life, Lai could be jailed for up to six months and/or fined S$2,500.

He could also be jailed for up to a year and/or fined S$5,000 for lying to the police, and he could face a jail term of up to seven years for obstructing the course of justice.