Man who hit bridal cars with metal ball bearings while shooting at pigeons gets jail

SINGAPORE: A man who disliked pigeons for the droppings they left behind took to shooting at them with a catapult and metal ball bearings, but missed the mark one morning and struck two cars in a wedding party at the foot of a housing block instead.

Samuel Tan Joo Soon, 53, was sentenced on Wednesday (Sep 9) to three weeks' jail for his actions.

He pleaded guilty to one charge of a rash act endangering the personal safety of others. A second charge of possessing an offensive instrument in the form of the wooden catapult was taken into consideration.

The court heard that Tan bought a wooden catapult in 2008 and used it to shoot stones at birds nesting in the trees around his Woodlands flat.

In 2016, Tan grew annoyed with pigeons nesting near his flat as they often defecated on window ledges of his unit or the air-conditioning compressor. He sprayed water at them with water guns to chase them away, but felt this was insufficient as the birds kept returning, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Chong Kee En.

Tan replaced the elastic band on his catapult in 2017 and bought two packets of 8mm metal ball bearings online. He tested these by shooting at trees in Admiralty Park, with the aim of improving his accuracy.

He started shooting ball bearings with his catapult at pigeons whenever they flew onto his air-conditioning compressor.

The pigeons gathered at a ledge opposite his block instead. Tan continued to shoot at them from his fifth-floor flat as he did not like having them in the area, but said he would shoot at pigeons which were against a wall so that he would not damage property or injure anyone.

THE MORNING OF THE WEDDING

Between 6.44am and 7am on Jul 1, 2017, a convoy of five vehicles arrived at the service road next to Block 762 in Woodlands Avenue 6 for a wedding "gatecrashing" ceremony.

When they arrived, the drivers blared their horns to signal the arrival of the groom, and two men parked their cars by the side of the service road.

Around this time, Tan woke up and fetched his catapult and ball bearings. He went to the window in his daughter's room as he claimed to have noticed some pigeons at the ledge of the opposite block.

The groomsmen and bridesmaids were at the void deck of Block 762 to play wedding gatecrashing games, laughing and cheering loudly. Tan claimed he was not irritated by this and could tolerate the noise they made.

At about 7.15am, a few of the bridesmaids heard very loud "bang" sounds but could not tell where they came from. Tan had shot ball bearings with his catapult, and claimed that he aimed at the pigeons and prompted them to fly to a tree.

He saw the two cars in the wedding party parked along the service road, about 5m away from the tree, and knew that the group had gone to the void deck to play gatecrashing games.

Despite this, he continued "raining down ball bearings at the pigeons from his window as he claimed that he wanted to make the pigeons fly away", said the prosecutor.

While shooting the ball bearings, Tan heard two loud "bang" sounds in a row. He paused for a short while, before he resumed shooting the ball bearings. He stopped only when the pigeons had flown away, the court heard.

POLICE SEARCH THE AREA

Two drivers in the wedding party returned to their cars at 7.30am and found holes on the rear windscreens of their vehicles and dents in their cars.

One of them called the police, who searched multiple flats in the neighbourhood but could not find the shooter. It was only after a projectile analysis that the police narrowed down the number of flats the shooter could have fired the ball bearings from and eventually found Tan.

They spoke to him about what happened and later discovered a toy airsoft tank and a packet of 8mm metal ball bearings in his house. They seized these items and several other items, including the wooden catapult, and arrested Tan.

Repairs to one of the cars cost S$2,460, while the damages to the other car could not be determined as it was scrapped without repairs.

Mr Chong asked for four weeks' jail for Tan, saying that there was a degree of risk as Tan knew that even plastic pellets hurt. 

Mr Chong dismissed Tan's "excuse" that he had trained himself so well that he could hit the pigeons directly, saying that he had missed and hit two cars.

He added that the groom in the wedding party had written to the police pleading for leniency on Tan's behalf.

HIS PREOCCUPATION WAS THE PIGEONS: DEFENCE

Defence lawyer Edmund Nathan asked for a community-based sentence instead, saying that his client had not intended to hurt anyone.

"His prime concern or focus was the pigeons," he said. "His preoccupation was the pigeons and nothing else."

He added that the two cars that were damaged were parked in a driveway not intended for parking, unlike three other cars that had parked in proper spots.

"In a way, the damage to the cars was brought on also by the victims themselves, although I most certainly feel that whatever has happened, my client was at fault," said Mr Nathan.

He said Tan had compensated the victims and had been prepared to pay in full but the other side had offered for him to pay only S$490, as they were covered by insurance.

District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt said the offence committed was "not only rash but highly dangerous".

"It was stressed by counsel in his point raised in mitigation that the accused had checked and ensured there was no one around when he shot the catapult," said Judge Chay. 

"This argument, unfortunately, is a non-starter. He should not have used a catapult to shoot ball bearings out of his window in the first place, whether or not he was shooting at pigeons. Let us not forget possessing a catapult is an offence in the first place."

However, he considered that Tan had pleaded guilty, was a first-time offender and had made compensation. He allowed him to defer sentence for two weeks to settle family issues.

For a rash act endangering personal safety of others, Tan could have been jailed for up to six months, fined up to S$2,500, or both.