Most Singaporeans know where Shenton Way is. What it is. Its the main road that runs through the central business district (CBD) of downtown city-centre Singapore. Its a four-lane one-way street lined by trees and surrounded by luxury apartment complexes and skyscrapers housing multinational corporations, the centrepiece being the nations stock exchange, SGX. Its the Singapore equivelent of New York's Wall Street. This is the story of how I witnessed a murder in broad daylight on one of the busiest streets in Singapore.
It was some time in 2024, I dont really remember when - the usual indicators of time dont exist here in SG, the sun sets at 7pm sharp and its summer all year round unless its January when its somewhat rainy. I was working at the stock exchange building at the time, I was out for lunch, a little before 12 noon as I like to get out early to avoid the rush and queues at the food court at Asia Square. I had bought a subway sandwich and teh tarek and sat myself down facing the main road, I was seated on one of the great granite slabs they place on the elevated pavement outside SGX to be used as benches.
As I enjoyed my lunch I gradually became conscious that something unusual was going on; the trees that line Shenton way are home to hundreds of birds, some Javan Minahs, but mostly these great majestic black Crows, the kind you find all over the world. When I first started working in the CBD I was struck by the constant chatter and caw-cawing of these birds, hundreds of them, all-day every day, loudly chattering amongst themselves, unseen in the trees but it wasnt long before their cacaphony became background noise and soon I didnt even register it. But today I suddenly became conscious again of the sound of the hundreds of crows in the trees because the pitch of their caw-cawing crow-talk was getting higher, like an argument escalating, getting more heated and shrill. As I looked up towards the trees to see what was going on a lone crow swooped down into the middle of the empty road and was immediately followed by five or six others who surrounded it, still caw-cawing, seeming to berate the surrounded crow, who I later named "the accused".
Now, one quirk of this stretch of road outside SGX was that, because of the way the traffic lights further up the road are prioritised, there would often be stretches of a minute or two where there were no cars using the spacious four lanes of this road. It was during one of these lulls that one of the most remarkable displays of animal behaviour I have ever seen in my life played out as I will recount to you now.
The crow that was being surrounded seemed to be under aggressive interrogation by the other crows, they would each take turns caw-cawing at the accused who would then reply with the demanour of one who was pleeing with his peers, as though he were stating his defense. This was a heated but orderly deliberation, you might see the same ordered behaviour and body language in a court room during a contentious trial or perhaps a heated debate amonst peers. I had stopped eating my lunch and was utterly rapt at this display when things suddenly took a dramatic turn.
After each of the surrounding crows had had their say toward the accused they seemed to reach a conclusion laudly caw-cawing in unison and then immediately set upon attacking the accused! The sound of the caw-cawing in the trees went up yet another octave, the volume now deafening, as the accused was accosted and suffered from a rapid and brutal barrage of blows from his interrogators, the surrounding crows pecking violently at its head and leaping at it scratching with their huge obsidian talons much like a cock-fighter would. After getting a couple of blows in, each of the surrounding crows would retreat to the trees and be replaced by one or two other crows who would swoop down to sustain the assault. Feathers and blood flew everywhere on the road, the accused was a truly pitiful sight, he seemed to not to beleive was happening to him.
After 15 or 20 seconds of this sustained and barbaric attack, at once all of the attackers retreated to the trees, the accused stood stunned, bloodied and seemed to be in shock but alive and still upright on his own two claws. My jaw agape, I looked around to see if anyone else was watching this when I saw, to my horror, that further up the road the traffic lights that feed this stretch of road must have changed for now there was a flood of traffic heading towards the accused. I looked with dread at his poor shaking form as the caw-cawing noise of his accusers now reaching a deafening shreiking crescendo. The accused was either not aware of the danger it was in or, as I suspect, had accepted that death was preferable to exile and did not take flight from the car rapidly approaching. The driver of the rapidly approaching luxury sedan did not slow down, presumably and reasonably assuming that the bird would take flight at the last moment, however the accused did not. The trial of the accused came to an end with the dull thud of the car grill impacting his poor prone body leaving a sad black and red smear on the road and suddenly, the deafening caw-cawing sound from the trees ceased. As feathers drifted in the breeze following the wake of the passing cars, now there was only silence in the trees from the crows of shenton way.
