KMT Taipei City councilor shot dead

KMT Taipei City Councilor Chen Chin-chi (陳進棋) was shot at a Taipei restaurant and pronounced dead by the Taipei Veteran's General Hospital (VGH) at 3:01pm yesterday.

Lee Chien-hsian (李建賢), director of the VGH's emergency room, said that Chen had received emergency medical treatment for nearly two hours but was pronounced dead on arrival.

"He did not have any pulse when he was sent here at around 1:10pm. We were sorry to announce his death after the two hours of emergency treatment," Lee said.

"He was shot four times, ? twice in the left arm, once in the left of his chest and another time in the right of his stomach. Damage to his heart, left lung and liver was the main cause of his death," he said.

Police said that Chen went to Taipei's Taoyuan Restaurant for a wedding lunch for his friend's daughter. Chen arrived at the restaurant at around 12:50pm.

While he was walking into the restaurant, a gunman wearing a motorcycle helmet and dark clothes opened fire with a pistol. The gunmen immediately fled with another suspect who also wore a motorcycle helmet and dark clothing and was waiting on a stolen scooter with the engine running.

The shooting lasted only a few seconds. Chen was then rushed to hospital.

"According to our initial investigation, we are looking for at least two suspects. However, our clues are limited because both suspects' faces were covered by their helmets.

"In addition, we have discovered that their scooter, with license plate number CAD-495, was reported stolen in Tienmu on Nov. 14," Taipei City Police Department Commissioner Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) said.

Chen had just celebrated his 41st birthday six days ago and was campaigning for his third term as councilor for Peitou and Shihlin.

Police said they are investigating possible motives.

"We are considering a political motive, and also whether Chen had links with organized crime. But I do not have any further details to make public at this moment," Wang added.

The police chief said at a press conference yesterday that 32 officers from the Criminal Investigation Corp (市刑大) had been assigned the task of protecting 32 city councilor candidates upon their request. Chen was one of them.

However, Chen told the officer protecting him that there was no need to stay with him yesterday since he was only attending a wedding lunch.

"I am really sorry for this tragedy," Wang said. "In the meantime, we are trying to find out whether the suspects knew that the police officer was not with Chen, giving them the opportunity to shoot him."

Wang said that city police headquarters will ask these 32 officers to stay with the candidates at all times.

Chinese-language television stations linked the death to disputes between local gangs who had fought over windfall profits from certain construction projects.