Two lawyers have offered to defend Beijing man Yang Jia, who has been charged with the murders of six policemen and injuring another four in a knife attack in Shanghai two weeks ago.

Yang's father reached an agreement with Beijing Xiongzhi Law Firm on Saturday, entrusting two of its lawyers to defend Yang. But the arrangement was yet to be confirmed by Yang himself, said Xiong Liesuo, one of the lawyers.

Yang, 28, who allegedly attacked police in Zhabei District of Shanghai on July 1, is being prosecuted by the Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate.

"A death sentence is likely, but that doesn't mean it's pointless to defend him," said Xiong, 40.

Xiong is scheduled to meet Yang this week and, with Yang's agreement, he will be working with colleague Kong Jian. "We'll look into his file, double-check all details and make sure his case is heard, investigated and judged fairly."

Xiong and his colleagues dropped in at Yang's Beijing residence shortly after they read about the knife attack on the Internet. Yang's parents are divorced and he lived with his mother in an apartment in Chaoyang District, in the north of Beijing.

"His mother was not home, so we left a note on the door," said Xiong. "Yang's father soon called us. We knew his parents were both poor, so we offered our services at no charge."

Yang was 14 when his parents divorced. His friends and relatives said he became introverted and rarely talked after that.

"He never talked about his parents," said Deng Shibo, Yang's best friend from primary school. "Every time I asked about his family, he would quickly change the topic."

After Yang finished junior high, he was trained as a salesman at a local technical school. He worked at a department store in northern Beijing for a few months and about a year at a Carrefour outlet. Most of the years he was unemployed and lived on his mother's pension plus 800 yuan (114 U.S. dollars) a month his father gave him.

Though he rarely talked in person, Yang was active on the Internet. He spent hours chatting with friends and writing blogs. His outright denial of any dates concerned his mother, but in his blog, he said he was "a bachelor eager to meet girls".

His last diary entry was posted on June 4, after he went mountain climbing with friends in Beijing. "Next time I'll remain in the lead," he wrote.

No one knew why less than four weeks later, Yang allegedly stabbed a security guard at a Shanghai police branch in Zhabei and started a fire at its gate, before forcing himself into the building and attacking nine police officers.

Revenge for a lengthy interrogation last year was cited as the cause of the stabbing spree, according to authorities with local police.

"It's hard to understand why he did that," said Yang's aunt. "He always followed the rules."

Yang's father said he never even fought with other boys when he was a child.

In mid June, Yang asked his friend Li Jia to help him book a one-way ticket to Shanghai. "He said he was there last year and wanted very much to go back."

Until the end of June, he was still chatting with his friends on the Internet.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2008)