The two main suspects in the beating death of a police detective outside of a Taipei nightclub surrendered to authorities yesterday.
According to police, Tseng Wei-hao (曾威豪) and his girlfriend, Liu Hsin-tung (劉芯彤), are the alleged instigators of the predawn incident at the Spark ATT bar in Xinyi District (信義) on Sunday morning.
After questioning Tseng and Liu yesterday, prosecutors said the pair would be charged over the death of Hsueh Chen-kuo (薛貞國), a detective with the Xinyi Precinct of the Taipei City Police Department.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Hsueh was allegedly attacked with baseball bats and clubs by a crowd of more than 40 people who claimed they were from a chapter of the nation’s most notorious triad, the Bamboo Union (竹聯幫).
Police alleged that Tseng and Liu told their friends to attack Hsueh, who was off duty that day, but had received telephone calls asking for his help to resolve a dispute at the bar.
As of press time last night, police said a total of 15 people allegedly involved in the attack have been detained and were being questioned.
Speaking through his lawyer, Tseng said the whole thing was “a misunderstanding.”
He was quoted as saying he and his colleagues only were trying to clarify an earlier dispute and he did not instigate the brawl.
As for video footage allegedly showing Liu pointing to Hsueh and urging that he be attacked, Tseng said his girlfriend was only asking others about the identity of the detective.
Tseng was quoted as saying he and Liu were so shaken by the brawl that they left the scene and went to a motel.
Police are said to have pressured the families of Tseng and Liu to contact the pair and urge them to surrender.
A second police officer, surnamed Chuang (莊), who had accompanied Hsueh to the bar, was also assaulted, but sustained only minor head wounds because the club’s bouncers pulled him out of the fray.
Chinese-language media reports say that Tseng comes from a well-to-do family, regularly frequents Taipei nightclubs and likes to tell people that he heads a chapter of the Bamboo Union.
The media reports said Hsueh was suspected of having “relationships” with gangsters and celebrities who own and operate many of the city’s top nightclubs and was often called in to “handle disputes” at the clubs.
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