The man shot to death by police on Wednesday night after holding a girl hostage at knifepoint had a long history of trouble with the law, Shanghai authorities said yesterday as they revealed details about how the seven-hour standoff was ended by a sniper's bullet.

What still wasn't clear yesterday was the motive for the crime. Police would not confirm earlier reports that the attacker had been chased after stealing from a mobile phone store before he entered a Putuo District KFC and grabbed the little girl.

He was identified yesterday as Tong Jiansheng, a 45-year-old resident of Putuo District.

Tong was single and unemployed, and both his parents are dead, authorities said. He was sentenced to a year in prison in June 2005 for arson, according to police.

After his release, Tong continued his criminal activities, including ticket scalping, gambling, and theft, police said.

The hostage drama began around 3 PM Wednesday on the ground floor of Times Extra, a hypermarket at the intersection of Yangliuqing and Wuning roads.

"My daughter had never been to a foreign fast-food restaurant before, which was a big attraction to her as a child raised in a small town," said mother Li Hui, a migrant worker from Anhui Province. "So I took her to the KFC for a new experience as we were getting ready to send her back home."

The little girl, Tian Tian, had an egg tart and then went to the restaurant's play area.

At that point, a man "with a weird look in his eye" seized the girl and put a knife to her neck, the mother said.

"It tore my heart when I heard my daughter pleading, 'I will never come to eat here anymore. Please don't kill me, uncle,"' she said.

The woman asked to exchange herself for her daughter but was refused.

"I didn't see the sniper, but I heard the shot," she said. "Police told me he was dead, and I rushed to hold my child," the mother said.

Li said her daughter had become more timid after Wednesday's ordeal and may be sent back to her hometown to escape the media spotlight. Depending on how well she recovers, the girl may also be sent to see a counselor, the mother said.

The child suffered some bruising on her neck but no other physical injury.

Police said yesterday that it took some time, and some subterfuge, to get a sniper into position to fire, after it became clear that the child might be harmed.

To shield the guns that were taken into the restaurant, officers disguised as KFC employees carried in three potted plants and two bundles of flowers. But it was extremely difficult to find a good angle from which to open fire.

"The man concealed himself in a castle-like structure in the children's corner, holding the girl in front of him," said an officer who identified himself as Wang. "Only part of his head could be seen."

Police set up a wall of cartons outside one of the entrances to the restaurant. A sniper was able to watch the hostage taker through a hole in the cartons.

"The sniper was about five to six meters away from the man, and the bullet hit him a little above and between the eyebrows," the officer said.

(Shanghai Daily June 8, 2007)