why does anyone think he has any intention to massacre? if he did why didn't he just shoot someone considering that unauthorised arms possession in public is a death sentence as it is?

maybe he was possessed....

or he was self delusional, believing himself to be a counterstrike game..

Agreed. Just because someone is armed doesn't mean he has the intention to massacre. He was probably stressed out/forgetful/irresponsible/all of the above.

sparklette.net

Trackback from pic of dave:

he is very surprisingly a normal and handsome looking guy....

This is plain irresponsible. Especially after an incident like the Virginia Tech shootings. You HAVE to warn people about such matters. It could have cost lives. They were just lucky it didn't

Look ppl carry arms everywhere in the US and ppl still want to go there for holiday. Only a small proportion will ever use it, and an even small proportion will ever use it on any give night.
Just because you're armed it doesn't mean you're dangerous.

Someone who buys a gun and registers it so that he can protect himself is obviously in a very different mental state than a person who walks out of camp with a state issued rifle who can potentially face very heavy punishment.

It should be clear from his walking out of camp that his future actions would be totally unpredictable and therefore your argument does not hold water. He simply cannot be compared to a normal person, gun wielding or not

There are dozens of reasons why a person would AWOL with a gun, and only one of them is that he wants to shoot someone. Much more likely he wanted to AWOL, but he couldn't get rid of his firearm, and you got to agree that walking around with your rifle is still much more responsible than throwing it away to 1 side.

If you see a soldier holding a rifle and walking around the water catchment area, is he a murderer? No, he's just very lousy at topo.

Anyway he disappeared for less than 24 hours, not even long enough to file a missing person report. They might have prepared the announcement to be released later but instead caught him first.

Anyway even if you're comparing this to the Virginia Tech shooting then the policy is not to let him touch the gun in the first place. Rather than "Hi everyone, this guy is nuts and he has a gun, so be careful of him."

Anyone who carries illegal firearms in public is either a criminal or nuts
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Yes, that's exactly what we need, a responsible felon. Do you read your own arguments before posting?

No, it would have been much worse if they caught him and the rifle was still missing. And your assumption that he would have done something with the gun - given that he had 20 hours and did nothing with it - is, to say the least, not a foregone one.

The danger that the announcement of a manhunt would have provoked him into action, or would have provoked somebody else to get into a scuffle with him - when he wouldn't have otherwise done something - is quite real.

There are 2 possible reasons he entered cineleisure - either to conduct a massacre or to have a good time, which is the main reason why ppl AWOL. I'm leaning towards the latter because if it was the former it would already have happened.

Also, the people who live, eat and sleep with him would be in a pretty good position, better than any one of us, to guess if he was going to be harmful. I'm sure the MPs would have consulted them before deciding what to do.

LOL. Last week's news: "9 in ten Americans owns small arms!" Living in the States must really be a perpetually unsafe experience; anyone can shoot you and claimed that it’s for self defense. The probability of that happening is high because it’s just a trigger away to end a moment of anger or resentment. Yes! Cos you're armed it doesn't make you dangerous but it does give you the ease of becoming dangerous when you can access to it easily. Yes, SG gahmen is paranoid! But remember that we can walk around outdoor at 3am in the morning feeling safe was because of gahmen's high-handed management in controlling everything. This NS chap is either suffering from a mental disorder or attention seeking. Even if things turn bad it won’t be another V-Tech or Columbine massacre because our 7-Eleven or Supermart doesn’t sell bullets unlike USA where you can get them just about everywhere. Why is there a need for a society to own so many arms? Definitely there are real issues with their social fabric; trusting no one including their own gahmen. sad...Lets just hope Sg won't become like them in the years to come.

That guy had bullets.

Pity all those on duty in every SAF camp over the next week. Luckily I ORD long time ago...

While the SAF and police force are searching for the missing NSF and his fire arm, why there was no warning to the public? I think they will give the excuse that this will create unnecessary panic among the public.

Guy is lucky it didn't cost him his own life. I still remember the incident where police shot and killed a mentally deranged guy who was charging them with a stick or something. At long range.

What a waste, just left a month to complete his army service. He probably be charged and send to detention barrack for his actions.

Then again, whats the actual intention of bring the weapon out to the street is still a question mark. Join those police and help patrol the streets?

Stupidity at its finest....

Trackback from Alvinology:

Who is Dave Teo Ming?...

Trackback from Military Life: Memoirs of a Conscript in the Lion City:

The recent incident where a full-time national serviceman (NSF) in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) went AWOL with his SAR21 should not surprise anyone who has served their 2 to 2.5 years of full-time National Service (NS)......

I do not think that we should speculate the reason(s) for Cpl Dave Teo's actions. He should be well aware of the consequences of his actions so I believe there must be cogent reasons for him doing what he did, although in all aspects what he did was plain foolish and never an alternative to whatever problems he may be facing.

I wish him well.

Only CPL Dave Teo knows the reason for why he did what he did.
Given the scant information given by Mindef, Police and the media, we can only rely on conjecture and speculations unless we are prescient or have ESP.

Many of us conscripts have served 2/2.5 years in the f***ing SAF and how many of us can deny ever having fantasies of doing a Columbine/Virginia Tech type of stunt against the asinine regulars who treated us unjustly or just plain tekanned us?

My personal experience has been that many of us entertain such possibilities, but our common sense stopped us from doing so. CPL Dave is also a poor conscript like many of us. Just that he snapped. I find that for the public interest it is important to know WHY he snapped. What was the trigger? Was it boy-girl relationships? Was it tekanning by superiors? Was it extra duties??? He only had 1 more month before ORD.

I can tell you, even during my last ICT doing Ops, people were sufficiently pissed off at one asinine NS (reservist) KAH officer that his tyres were stolen while parked at his HDB multi-storey carpark. NS can really suck out your soul and patriotism for this company known as Singapore Inc.

just remember an FT got away with only 1 yr jail by pushing his gf down the mrt track.. with an intend to kill her...

Trackback from Simply Me: 2nd person charged with Cpl Teo:

Apparently, a second person was involved in the Cpl Teo incident. Ong, 21, unemployed is said to be charged by the police for having met Cpl Teo and is assumed to know that the latter had a weapon with him....

Trackback from of the attack of the black-veiled assassin after dave teo's court hearing:

The Attack of the Black-Veiled Assassin. Dave Teo Ming's relatives is very power. ...

Trackback from of sph reporter is desperately seeking dave teo (pic):

Jermyn Chow is desperately seeking Dave Teo Ming....

i think we should take this chance to address the issue

Is SAF doing enough to take care of the mental well being of NSFs ?
when

1. we keep hearing many cases of suicide and death during training,

2. and we all know that its not a rosy picture in the military, not like how the advertisements beautify things, you live beck and call to serve ppl with ranks and the constant fear of getting charge for anything under the military law.

3. you have no choice in the first place

4. you give up your career for 2 years and your personal life is affected, in many cases relationships break during this years. Some of us live with permanent injuries too.

5. you have to go through chain of command to "feedback" your problems

6. we lose out to FT who have this 2 years to be ahead of us, they live comfortably here with all the carrot for them, and better job prospects cause of the NS liability.

personally i think he must be in a state of mind where risking that one month towards freedom didnt even matter to him.
what could have caused that?

We are very lucky this did not become another Virgina tech

lets hope this is the last of an individual that could be pushed into the corner, doing something as extreme as that

by getting a good look at his situation ( and not pin point to an easy excuse e.g. relationship ), everything adds up.

No doubt, many people will feel that this incident is either due to Singapore Armed Forces' (SAF) lack of security measures or they will blame it onto duty personnels who did not watch over the AWOL soldier during duty. However, i feel that this incident is one off and no one should be blamed...including the AWOL soldier. Given anyone with only 1 more month before ORD...it is only natural that most will bite their teeth and comply to the rules in hoping to get back their pink IC safely. Only when a person really snapped that he will do silly things which are often towards the extreme. Its not hard to guess that this NSF has completely lost it when he was escaping out of camp with a weapon.

Having been through really unhappy NSF days...i can't help but to feel sorry for this person. Feel sorry for him because he wasn't able to receive help from his buddies, section leaders and officers. And also for the Double punishment waiting for him. (Double punishment because when a soldier has commited civil offence, he will have to go thru Civil trial and after that court marshal.Which also means that when proven guilty, he will be jailed in prison and after that detention barrack....) I pray that he will be pardoned and hopefully receive sympathy from the public as well.

Trackback from youngjedi: Corporal Dave Teo Ming and the army song:

If you guys have been through national service, you would know the last verse of this well known army song. It goes like this ... ...