The way his colleagues remember it, Chen Yong, the deputy director of Xicheng Police Station, part of the Xingping Public Security Bureau in Shaanxi province, was always the first to arrest suspects, and was attempting to do so until the final moments of his life.

Chen became a police officer in August 2000. During his 22 years as an officer, he participated in 170 conflicts and disputes, handled 190 criminal cases and arrested 120 suspects. Chen died in the line of duty while attempting to arrest a suspect on July 27 at age 43.

The Ministry of Public Security posthumously named him a "Second-Class Hero Model of the National Public Security System" in September.

In mid-June, the station discovered that a criminal gang was helping overseas telecom fraud gangs launder huge amounts of money by buying gold.

In reaction to these findings, Chen immediately began to investigate the case in conjunction with other departments. Through tracking and analysis, he was able to shed light on the division of labor and makeup of the gang and track their activities.

After careful deployment, Chen and his colleagues headed the arrest of the suspects on July 27.

When the suspects attempted to leave the scene in an SUV and a commercial vehicle, Chen rushed in to try to stop them, pulling open the SUV's door. He was severely beaten as the suspects resisted arrest.

Amid fierce fighting, one suspect attempted to escape the scene at high speed, resulting in Chen and two other officers falling from the vehicle. A second suspect in the other vehicle ran over Chen as he was trying to get up.

When his colleagues rushed to his aid, Chen urged them to go and catch the suspects first, and then lapsed into unconsciousness. Rushed to the hospital, he died after emergency treatment failed to save his life. The following day, nine suspects were arrested.

Influenced by his father, who had also been a police officer, Chen was determined to become an officer at an early age. In July 2000, after graduating from university, he joined the financial crimes investigation brigade at the Xingping Public Security Bureau. He was always humble and studied hard, turning himself into an expert in financial investigations.

"He sometimes didn't go home for a month or more as he worked on cases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he fought day and night on the front lines and did not go home for more than two months," his father said.

Chen used to say that as long as he was in charge of a case, he had to be the first to find the suspects, and he repeatedly risked his life to catch them, according to his colleague, Wang Anxin.

"I worked with him for seven years, and he was often at the forefront of every case," Wang said.

In September 2006, the police received a report about a person who had been defrauded out of 30,000 yuan. Chen and his colleagues worked on the case for two weeks and discovered that the suspect was hiding in Taiyuan, Shanxi province. Chen drove to Taiyuan and caught the suspect in a hotel, and was able to recover the stolen money.

After he started working at the police station, Chen quickly integrated with the local community and became an expert at solving community disputes due to his patience.

He often told young officers that as police officers, they were there to serve the public, and they needed to be patient and listen to their needs carefully to help them and resolve disputes.

Thousands of people turned out for Chen's funeral, and the Shaanxi Provincial People's Government recognized him as a martyr.