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Suspected assassin dies after gunbattle

Lan Chia-wei (藍家偉), the main suspect in the killing of Taipei County councilor Wu Shan-jeou (吳善九), shot himself with his own pistol after a gunbattle with police in Taipei late on Sunday night.

The Taipei City Police Department said Lan, 36, who had arrived by bus from Chiayi at 11pm, stumbled onto a police roadblock while walking near the intersection of Civic Boulevard and Chengde Road.

When he was stopped by the officers for a routine check, he dropped the bag he was carrying and fled.

The officers gave chase and as they closed in, Lan pulled out a pistol and opened fire, police officials said.

Lan ran along Chengde Road and went onto an overpass, where he fired four more shots at the officers before running into a nearby construction site.

There he found some clothes belonging to construction workers and a hard hat, the officials said.

He changed his clothes in a bid to disguise himself as a construction worker to flee the area, while more than 30 police officers surrounded the site, the officials said.

Hemmed in by police, Lan fired two more shots at officers and then ran into a parking lot on Huayin Street.

Police officers exchanged gunfire with Lan in the parking lot, firing a total of 31 shots over a 20-minute period before Lan shot himself, the officials said.

Lan was sent to Mackay Memorial Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival, the officials said.

No police officers were hurt.

The Criminal Police Bureau confirmed Lan's identity yesterday morning. He had been identified from his ID and bank passbooks in the bag he dropped.

Shinlin prosecutor Wu Yi-ming (吳怡明) conducted a postmortem examination of Lan's body yesterday morning. Wu said Lan had been shot in one leg in the gunbattle before he killed himself.

National Police Agency Director-General Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said although Wu Shan-jeou was shot by a single gunman, the crime was believed to have been masterminded by a group.

Police said they believe Lan was the shooter and that he had been helped by Banciao gangster Wu Hsin-chung (吳信中), who fled to China a couple of days after the May 23 assassination.

They have said a man by the name of Wang Yao-kai (王耀凱) was also involved.

Police said Wu Hsin-chung and some friends had been involved in environmental clean-up businesses and the murder was probably connected to those businesses.

Wu Shan-jeou, a People First Party member, often raised environmental issues at Taipei County Council meetings.
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