A Malaysian intern at the Kaohsiung Medical University allegedly set a fire and stabbed a hospital staff member multiple times before jumping off a sixth-floor balcony early yesterday morning.
Lin Wei-yang (林瑋揚) was declared dead at 5am yesterday and had sustained extensive bone fractures, police said.
Police said 28 year-old Lin made a video recording apologizing to Taiwanese and saying that he hoped Taiwan-Malaysia relations would not suffer because of his actions.
Photo: CNA
According to police investigations, Lin was a student in his seventh year at the university and had not done well academically, failing multiple subjects.
An application was filed on Monday to defer his studies and delay his graduation. The school added that Lin had a history of emotional problems and was on a list for intensive counseling sessions.
Lin allegedly set fire to the changing room in the dental clinic on the second floor of the hospital’s W building before locking the door behind him and leaving.
Police said they suspected Lin set the fire to divert attention, because he subsequently went to the third floor of the C building and repeatedly stabbed a 46-year-old staff member on duty, surnamed Wu (吳). Wu’s neck was also slashed.
A nurse allegedly saw Lin leaving the building and he told her: “I’m going to kill myself; [you] go in the room.”
Lin abandoned his knife and clothes as he fled the crime scene and made his way to the sixth floor of an adjacent building, where he set up a video camera on a balcony railing and made the recording, police said.
According to the police, Lin said in the video he wished to be cremated and that he was willing to donate his organs. He also made an explicit request not to be given emergency medical treatment and jumped from the balcony.
Meanwhile, the wounded Wu managed to reach the hospital’s blood bank and called for help before passing out from loss of blood. He was in critical condition, police said at the time of going to press.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2