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Police NSF choked fellow policeman, shouted vulgarity while drunk on New Year’s Day

SINGAPORE — On New Year’s Day this year, Mohammad Jeffry Lui Azman’s early morning drunken behaviour caught the attention of police officers performing crowd control duties.

Mohammad Jeffry Lui Azman, 21, who was drunk, shouted a vulgarity at a police officer before pushing and choking him on New Year's Day.

Mohammad Jeffry Lui Azman, 21, who was drunk, shouted a vulgarity at a police officer before pushing and choking him on New Year's Day.

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SINGAPORE — On New Year’s Day this year, Mohammad Jeffry Lui Azman’s early morning drunken behaviour caught the attention of police officers performing crowd control duties.

As the officers interviewed Jeffry and his friends, he suddenly shouted a vulgarity at one of them and challenged him to a fight.

He then pushed the officer to the ground and choked him with his hands.

The 21-year-old, who at the time of the incident was serving his National Service as an assistant training instructor at the police’s Special Operations Command, pleaded guilty on Friday (Nov 1) to causing hurt to a public servant. 

Another two charges of being drunk in a public place and verbally abusing a policeman will be taken into consideration for sentencing on Nov 26.

Jeffry is still a full-time national serviceman with the police now.

The court heard that he had gone to Club Nexus in Oriental Plaza, located in the Chinatown area, with two friends at about 1am on Jan 1.

They shared three towers of beer and a bottle of cognac. At about 3am, they left the club and went to smoke near the entrance of Oriental Plaza.

While Jeffry’s two friends were talking to each other, Jeffry approached another group smoking there and started mumbling incoherently while staring at one of them.

He turned agitated and raised his right fist at the other man. 

When the group tried to push Jeffry away, his friends came over to pull him away and apologised for his behaviour.

This attracted the attention of a team of four police officers, who had been deployed at Oriental Plaza to ensure that New Year’s partygoers at the various clubs left in an orderly manner.

The officers separated the two groups of men before interviewing them.

Jeffry grew agitated again and shouted “Police big f***” at Staff Sergeant Kenneth Ong. 

He also commented that Staff Sergeant Ong had a small physique before challenging him to a fight.

Staff Sergeant Ong advised him to calm down but to no avail.

Jeffry broke out of his friends’ grasp and charged towards the officer, raising his hand and trying to push him on the chest.

Staff Sergeant Ong stopped him but Jeffry held onto the officer’s elbows and they began struggling. 

As the officer tried to break free, they lost their balance and fell to the ground.

Jeffry fell on top of him and choked him for about five seconds. Two other officers managed to pull Jeffry away and arrested him.

Staff Sergeant Ong was given two days of medical leave as a result of the incident.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Colin Ng told the court that he did not object to a report being called to assess if Jeffry is suitable for probation, as he is a young first-time offender.

In mitigation, Jeffry’s lawyer said that he accepted responsibility for what he did and had been “in a severe state of intoxication which led him to behave out of character”.

“Prior to committing the offences, he had originally intended to sign on to the police force… he has made a personal vow never to drink alcohol again,” the lawyer added.

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