News of another act of heroism during the Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system stabbing spree last week emerged yesterday, as a woman told of how she used her handbag as both a weapon and a shield to protect herself and other passengers.
The woman, identified as 37-year-old Tsai Yueh-yin (蔡月銀), said she swung her purse, which was filled with books, at the 21-year-old suspect, Cheng Chieh (鄭捷), to fend him off as he approached her in an MRT car, stabbing people at random.
“I had library books in my bag, so acting on instinct, I immediately stood up and swung the bag at him,” Tsai, a survey assistant at New Taipei City’s Land Administration Department, told cable TV network Eastern Television (ETTV).
Photo: Lai Hsiao-tung, Taipei Times
The attacker tried to go after a mother sitting with her infant sitting next to Tsai, so Tsai said she tried to protect the pair.
“It was my maternal instinct. I pulled them behind me and swung my big bag at the suspect again,” the mother of two told ETTV.
The Chinese-language United Daily News reported that Tsai also tried to stop the suspect from attacking an elderly woman sitting near her and suffered a knife cut to one of her fingers.
Tsai said she hopes that people will stop making the survivors of the stabbing spree feel guilty, referring to a remark by a government official who said he did not understand why “no one” stood up to the suspect.
“We are not well-trained police or SWAT team members. We just wanted to stay alive for the people we love,” Tsai said.
Tsai was not the only passenger who demonstrated bravery during the incident on Wednesday last week that left four people dead and 23 injured.
A video clip filmed by one passenger showed some men standing in front of a group of passengers to defend them from the attacker.
One of the men, later identified as a 52-year-old businessman, wielded his umbrella like a sword during a standoff that lasted at least 40 seconds, until the train approached Jiangzicui Station.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported that the man downplayed his actions, citing him as saying that he was “not the only one” standing in front of the group of passengers.
Surveillance video also showed a some people trying to subdue the suspect on the station platform.
A 62-year-old man named Chen Feng (陳風), who has martial arts experience, was the first to subdue the suspect and hold him until the police arrived.
He said he did not dare tell his family about the incident, but knew he was “doing the right thing.”
A 36-year-old nurse who was waiting on the platform was also reported by local media to have rushed onto the train to help the wounded.
“It was an instinctive response. I didn’t think that much about it on the spur of the moment,” she said.
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