Saigon ‘knights’ stabbed to death as robbery takedown turns bad

Two men were killed and three more were injured as they attempted to apprehend a group of armed thieves in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday night.

The five vigilantes, dubbed the “Tan Binh District Knights,” approached the four armed thieves at around 8 p.m. when they were trying to unlock a motorbike on Cach Mang Thang Tam Street.

The thieves resisted and fought back, with one of them pulling a knife.

“It all happened so fast. In only about a minute, five men were lying in their own blood,” a local food vendor at the scene told VnExpress.

The thieves then got on two motorbikes and fled the scene in different directions, the witness said.

Two of the knights, 29 and 42, were pronounced dead at the scene. Local residents rushed the rest of the group to hospital, with the leader, Tran Van Hoang, in a critical condition.

Hoang, who founded the “Tan Binh District Knights,” had captured over 500 thieves in 20 years. In 2014, the city bestowed the “Local Street Spotlight” award on him for his contribution to maintaining peace in the area. His group regularly patrols the streets of Ho Chi Minh City on motorbikes at night to apprehend robbers and thieves.

Local police are investigating the incident.

Ho Chi Minh City, the largest city in Vietnam, is notorious for its street crimes. The city police recorded nearly 900 criminal offenses related to robbery and theft in 2016.