The accident happened in a residential community called “Élysées” in Linzi city, Shandong province. Around 10 am, June 17, 2012, Mrs Wang and her daughter were heading back home after grocery shopping. Only a few meters away from the building they live, their electronic bicycle was hit by a car. According to witnesses, they were hit so hard that they flew over two parking spots before crashing under a parked car. Passersby immediately called an ambulance. However, to everyone’s surprise, after the ambulance arrived, alleged driver Mrs. Zhang started to prevent the rescue team from sending the seriously-injured Mrs. Wang and her daughter to hospital. At first, Mrs. Zhang tried to grabbed the daughter’s body. Then she stripped naked and laid down in front of the ambulance to block its way.

The daughter was announced dead after arriving hospital and the mom was still in critical condition. According to the Weibo account of Tudou, China’s leading video streaming service, alleged driver Mrs. Zhang is a lecturer at a local junior medical college and mother of two. She specializes in Traditional Chinese medicine and used to teach anatomy and psychiatry. Ironically, she is now under detention and receiving psychological tests.

More disturbingly, according to reporters from Sina, alleged driver Mrs. Zhang and victim Mrs. Wang and her daughter are acquaintances living in the same residential community. According to eyewitnesses, Mrs. Zhang was very emotional before the accident, keeping shouting “I’m so anger.” Mrs. Zhang’s mother was also in the car at the time, who bled badly after banging onto the windshield during the accident. Mrs. Zhang, however, wasn’t any kinder to her own mom. After the accident, she took her mom by the throat and almost choked her to death.

Though Mrs. Zhang is receiving psychological assessments, many netizens still suspected whether Mrs. Zhang, as a former psychiatry teacher, was just pretending to be in an unstable psychological state. Why? Becasue “hit and kill”, rather than “hit and run”, is the norm in China. If you hit someone and s/he survives, you will be responsible for all the medical expenses and beyond. This notion of “murder rather than money” isn’t uncommon to see in China. Two years ago in 2010, the case of Yao Jiaxin shocked the whole world – after he hit the victim, Zhang Miao, he stabbed her to death when he found Zhang memorizing his license plate number. Many netizens were speculating whether Mrs. Zhang in the current case would be a female Yao Jiaxin.