On 30 November 1994, Senior Staff Sergeant (SSSgt) Boo Tiang Huat of the Singapore Police Force and his partner were on their routine spot checks when they encountered a man behaving suspiciously, and approached him to check his identity. However, the 27-year-old ex-convict Zainal Abidin Abdul Malik retrieved an axe from his black bag and used it to strike Boo on the head, which killed the 47-year-old policeman instantly. Zainal Abidin was subsequently arrested and charged with murder. Boo was posthumously promoted as Station Inspector (SI) after his death, as a recognition of his contributions to the police force from 1973 to 1992, and from 1993 and 1994, when he ended his retirement and re-joined the force.

Caning is a widely used form of corporal punishment in Singapore. It can be divided into several contexts: judicial, prison, reformatory, military, school and domestic. These practices of caning as punishment were introduced during the period of British colonial rule in Singapore. Similar forms of corporal punishment are also used in some other former British colonies, including two of Singapore's neighbouring countries, Malaysia and Brunei.