Police said yesterday that they believed a man named Chen Yi-hsiung (
Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) Commissioner Hou You-yi (
"While Chen [Yi-hsiung] was dead on March 29 and we were still looking for the pistol and bullets he used in the assassination attempt, his family had a letter he left before his death in which he admitted he committed the assassination attempt," Hou said.
PHOTO: CIB, RETAKEN BY SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
However, Hou said that Chen's wife said she never saw her husband's pistol and bullets, and that Chen possibly had thrown out the weapon.
Upset
Hou said Chen, a 50 year-old retired construction worker, was very unsatisfied with the political situation and with Chen's government. This was his motive in the assassination attempt.
"Chen said in an note before March 19 that he hated the fact Chen would likely be re-elected," Hou added.
Hou said that a security camera near the site of the attempted assassination in Tainan City filmed a middle-aged, partially bald male and in a yellow jacket walking quickly and nervously away from the site of the shooting immediately after it occurred.
On March 26, police publicized the man's picture and asked him to report to police, but he never appeared, Hou said.
On March 29, Chen Yi-hsiung's drowned corpse was found at the An-Ping port in Tainan City. Police noted that he looked very similar to the man in the picture.
He said since his body had no wounds, prosecutors had believed that it was purely a suicide case.
"At the time, we suspected that he was the man in the picture, but we had no evidence that connected him to the 319 assassination attempt," Hou said.
He said that on Sept. 13, police identified Tang Shou-yi (
"Several days ago, we were very excited after we discovered that Chen Yi-hsiung bought a pistol and bullets from Tang," Hou said.
Bullets and a gun
He said that in February last year Chen told his friend, Chen Bo-chang (
Wu admitted to the investigators that the pistol and bullets were bought from Tang, according to the police.
Hou said the 20 bullets were made of copper and lead, which matched the two bullets, one made of copper and another made of lead, used in the 319 shooting.
"This breakthrough made us consider Chen [Yi-hsiung] as a suspect, and we began to question his family -- his wife and four children," Hou said.
In the beginning, Chen Yi-hsiung's family denied that he was the shooter, but after three days of questioning, they finally admitted that it was very likely he had committed the assassination attempt, Hou said.
Chen's wife told investigators that her husband was out when the shooting occurred, Hou added.
"When he came home in that evening, he was quiet and seemed lost in thought," Hou said she told investigators.
Hou added that Chen Yi-hsiung's wife said that "when the police published the picture of a baldheaded man with a yellow coat, I watched it on TV and asked my husband `Is that you?' and `Did you do that?'"
Chen Yi-hsiung responded that "it was his own business and that he would handle this," the wife told investigators.
She was quoted by the police as saying that her husband had burned the yellow coat in his house the very day police published the picture.
Chen's wife told investigators that his husband left a letter before his death, which expressed his anger and disappointment with Chen's government.
The letter said that Taiwan's economy was getting worse, and therefore he could not sell his house and repay debts for his relatives, according to Chen's wife.
Chen Yi-hsiung hated that President Chen had a good chance of being re-elected, she told investigators.
Hou said Chen's wife had destroyed the letter in order to evade the investigation.
In addition to the letter, investigators found notes in Chen Yi-hsiung house that expressed the similar sentiments.
Hou showed these notes to reporters in the press conference.
Hou said that although Chen's family admitted that Chen was the shooter, the investigators will continue to gather more evidence and details before they announced a close of the assassination probe.
also see stories:
Pan-blue camp dismisses breakthrough in 319 case
Presidential Office lauds 319 task force for its work
Friends, neighbors remember suspected shooter as a normal, sports-loving man
Editorial: Living with uncertainty
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday that China using armed force against Taiwan could constitute a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, allowing the country to mobilize the Japanese armed forces under its security laws. Takaichi made the remarks during a parliamentary session yesterday while responding to a question about whether a "Taiwan contingency" involving a Chinese naval blockade would qualify as a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan, according to a report by Japan’s Asahi Shimbun. "If warships are used and other armed actions are involved, I believe this could constitute a survival- threatening
RSS