Cara Anna, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

1 Comment(s)

SHANGHAI, China - The Chinese man accused of stabbing a Canadian model to death in her apartment building told police in a televised interview that the attack began when she caught him trying to steal her laptop and knocked him to the floor.

Enlarge Photo

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Eastday.com

In this image made off video footage, 18-year-old Chen Jun sits behind bars in a public security office in Shanghai, China, July 11, 2008 after his arrest in nearby Anhui province.

Eighteen-year-old Chen Jun described the confrontation with Diana O'Brien in a popular Shanghai crime news show, Dongfang 110, that aired Wednesday. Shanghai's police force produces the show about real-life crime investigations, and a police officer who worked on the production confirmed details of the interview Friday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

O'Brien, 22, had been in Shanghai for just two weeks on a short-term modeling contract when her body was found in a pool of blood in a stairwell of her apartment building July 7. Four days later, police announced they had arrested Chen in his nearby home province of Anhui, carrying items from the apartment O'Brien had shared with roommates.

In Chen's interview, he explained that he was in O'Brien's apartment building when he saw the door to her apartment open. He said he didn't see anyone around and was taking a laptop when O'Brien came out of another room.

"While I wasn't looking, she hit me and knocked me to the floor," Chen said.

He said he took out a knife and stabbed her, then followed when she ran out of the apartment screaming and stabbed her again in the stairwell, fearing the neighbors would come out to look. Chen did not actually confess to killing O'Brien during the broadcast.

In the interview, Chen also said he left the apartment building empty-handed after the stabbing but came back a few hours later to get the laptop so he could sell it and have money to escape home to Anhui.

One of millions of migrant workers in Shanghai, Chen told the interviewer he had lost his job at a teahouse near O'Brien's apartment in June and needed money to return home.

When Chen was arrested, police said they found money, jewelry, mobile phones and a digital camera from the apartment.

The Dongfang 110 report said Chen was caught when he went to a police station in Anhui after the stabbing, claiming his identity papers had been stolen and asking for new ones.

Killing a foreigner in China usually results in the death penalty.

O'Brien had come to Shanghai to pursue her modelling career, but friends reported the woman from Salt Spring Island, B.C. was not happy with the assignments she was receiving and planned to leave before the end of her three-month contract.