In a daring move straight out of a Hollywood script that is unprecedented in Taiwan, two prisoners being held at the Taichung Detention Center -- including a death row inmate -- escaped during the early hours of yesterday morning after taking two guards hostage at gunpoint, sparking a massive manhunt.
Although one guard was soon released, the other -- now under suspicion of involvement in the escape plot -- was still missing as of press time, as were the two escapees.
The inmates have been identified as Huang Chu-wang (
PHOTO: TANG SHIH-MING, LIBERTY TIMES.
Prosecutors said Huang and Yang escaped from their ward at 1:55am yesterday morning, when they were able to get two hand-guns and seize the on-duty guard Hsu Chang-ching (
With Hsu as hostage, the pair then proceeded through several electric security gates -- apparently undetected -- until they reached the front reception office.
There, they allegedly overpowered another guard, Ruan Wen-ching (
Once outside, the men forced Hsu and Ruan into Hsu's car and drove toward nearby Mt. Tatu (
The escape was reportedly discovered only after Ruan was released and alerted prison authorities by phone, said Shen Huan-jan (
The Ministry of Justice has set up a special task force to investigate the incident, which now strongly suspects the missing guard of abetting the escape.
"We have not ruled out Hsu's involvement in assisting the escape," said Hsu Wan-Hsiang (許萬相), a prosecutor at the Taichung District Prosecutors' Office and a member in the ad hoc investigation team.
According to the prosecutor, Hsu was scheduled to work from 8pm to 11pm Saturday night, but had requested a shift swap with his colleague and so was working the 11pm to 2am shift.
The prosecutor said Hsu left the detention center before beginning his shift. When he returned, he was carrying two bags, the contents of which remain unknown.
"Usually when the guards enter the detention sector, they are body-searched. But this did not happen Saturday night because there was no one on duty at the control center," said prosecutor Hsu.
He said that at the time of the escape, only three of the facility's 150 guards were actually on duty ? including the two who were seized as hostages.
The facility was holding some 2,000 inmates at the time.
How the guns were brought into the facility is also under investigation. Prosecutors said the possibility the guns were brought in during an earlier visit to the inmates has not yet been ruled out.
Meanwhile, justice officials have been doublely embarrassed by the apparent lack of any videotape of the incident, as the men walked undetected from the detention center. Deputy warden Shen told reporters yesterday that the entire proceedings were apparently not recorded by security cameras.
"That is shameful and regrettable, we will apologize to the public," said Vice Minister of Justice Hsieh Wen-ting (
He said Minister of Justice Yeh Ching-fong (
"We will make every effort to find out whether any detention center staffers collaborated with the two felons in the escape and [if there were] we will severely punish them."
Hsu Chang-chin has served as a guard at the maximum-security Taichung Detention Center for about four years. Before that he worked in a military jail, detention center officials said.
The Coast Guard Administration, meanwhile, has been placed on high alert to prevent the escapees from smuggling themselves out of Taiwan.
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