[2] Outnumbered, Ng and his friends fled the scene and Ong's gang gave chase, passing by many witnesses and some crowded shops in Downtown East Mall.
Five hours after the incident, Darren Ng, the only son of his family and the youngest of two children, was pronounced dead at about 10:55 pm on the night of 30 October 2010.
[5] Given the fact that the incident occurred in a Saturday evening, in front of a large crowd consisting of people of all ages, the feelings of the public had run high and the pro-death penalty advocates voiced out for the hanging of the main culprits for their part in the murder of the young student.
The government stepped in to implement guidance programmes to reach out for those at-risk young people and teenagers who were vulnerable to joining gangs.
Ng's then girlfriend said that her boyfriend, whom she dated for seven months prior to his death, always talk about his friends and family, and a "joker" who would always make those around him laugh.
Three of these arrested youths—Tang Jia Min, 21; Ho Wui Ming (何为民; Hé Weìmín),[4] 20 and Chen Wei Zhen (陈伟振; Chén Weǐzhèn),[4] 19—were charged with murder.
He was brought to court nearly a year and a half after the incident, where he pleaded guilty to rioting, and another offence of causing hurt to a 20-year-old man at Bishan Bus Interchange in April 2010.
Tang Jia Min, who initially faced a murder charge like the five main culprits, received the heaviest sentence of 6 years and 3 months' imprisonment and 6 strokes of the cane for playing a more instrumental role in the crime.
[14] Eventually, on 30 July 2012, the five youths—Stilwell Ong Keat Pin, Chen Wei Zhen, Ho Wui Ming, Louis Tong Qing Yao, and Edward Tay Wei Loong—saw their charges reduced to a lesser charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which meant that they would not face the death sentence, but either life imprisonment or up to 20 years in jail with caning.
All five youths, who were represented by veteran lawyer Subhas Anandan, pleaded guilty to the reduced charges as they stood trial before Justice Tay Yong Kwang of the High Court of Singapore.
In their closing submissions, the prosecution had urged for a sentence of at least 15 years' imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane for Ong, who was not the oldest but the leader of the gang and mastermind of the attack on Darren Ng.
[15] In mitigation, Subhas Anandan, who returned from his sick leave, argued that the courts should show some leniency to the boys in view of their young age and give them a chance of rehabilitation.
Ho Wui Ming, who used a screwdriver to cause hurt to Ng, was sentenced to a total of 11 years and 3 months' imprisonment with 10 strokes of the cane.
Both Chen Wei Zhen and Edward Tay each received a sentence of 10 years' imprisonment and 10 strokes of the cane for using a fruit knife and chopper, respectively.
As for Louis Tong, who was armed with a fruit knife at the time of the attack, he was sentenced to 8 years' imprisonment and 11 strokes of the cane for the crimes he committed.
After they opened up and shared their grief, they began to slowly understand Ng's friends and stopped their judgemental attitude towards these delinquent youths.
Ng's father also reportedly hosted a golf tournament together with a friend to raise funds for the troubled youth; he stated that he had lost his son and did not want to let other parents losing theirs.
The friend expressed his wish to help Ng's family to cope with their grief and take care of them but he did not want them to feel sad as seeing them will remind them of what happened that day.
Ng, who spent 10 months in remand and was on bail when he was interviewed by the paper before he started to serve his prison sentence of 3 years and 3 months (which he received for rioting, along with 3 strokes of the cane), stated that seeing his lorry driver father (who had to work seven days a week to pay the legal fees to his son's lawyer Josephus Tan) coping with his foolish acts, he could feel the pain Darren Ng's parents felt at the loss of their son, which made him realise his father's suffering.
[14] In December 2018, eight years after his arrest, Stilwell Ong, the mastermind of the 2010 gang attack, was released from prison on parole due to good behaviour.
[22] Tan Sen Yang was said to be armed with a karambit knife and used it to stab at the victim's head and neck multiple times resulting in the man's death.
As for the other six members, one of them - 27-year-old Chan Jia Xing - who was investigated to be trying to stop the fight and was not involved in the fight and fully cooperated with the police after his arrest, was set free after he received a 12-month conditional warning for a lesser charge of consorting with a person carrying an offensive weapon in a public place, which meant no conviction or sentence, but if Chan ever re-offend within the next 12-month period, he would return to court.
[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] As a result of the reduction of the murder charges against all except Tan Sen Yang, two female netizens in social media made up and circulated posts containing allegations of preferential treatment in sentencing on account of race of alleged criminals, saying that minority people are given harsher sentences while the majority races escaped with lighter charges and penalties.
In response to such allegations, the Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) said such media posts have the "potential to disrupt racial harmony in Singapore, and cause irreversible divisions in our communities" and amount to contempt of court, in addition to refuting these allegatory claims.
[32][33] Three days after the arrest of the two women for the preferential treatment allegations, Minister of State for Home Affairs Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim called these claims baseless and irresponsible while in a Parliament session.
Once again, before ending off, Faishal reiterated that everyone, regardless of race, religion, socio-economic status or educational achievements, are not subject to any preferential treatment by the criminal justice system of Singapore.