Kuo Yen-chun (郭彥君), the suspect in the Taipei MRT knife attack on Monday evening that injured four people, was detained yesterday after being charged with attempted murder and intentional injury.
Kuo was questioned at the Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office in Taipei yesterday morning, then taken to the Shilin District Court, where the presiding judge upheld the prosecutors’ request for detention, saying the suspect has no permanent residence and that detention was necessary to prevent him from escaping justice.
Police said the 27-year-old suspect told them: “I wanted to kill someone,” and that he had made a mistake, but “it was all too late.”
Photo: CNA
Datong District (大同) Deputy Chief of Police Chang Chin-an (張金安) alleged that Kuo headed to the Zhongshan MRT Station carrying a kitchen knife on Monday evening and slashed four people as he walked down the escalator of the No. 4 exit, creating panic as people ran away in fear.
Kuo was then disarmed and apprehended by security guards, with the help of several MRT passengers.
Chang said the four victims, three women and one man, were taken to the nearby Mackay Memorial Hospital for treatment. They all suffered lacerations that were not life-threatening.
Photo: CNA
During questioning by investigators, Kuo was quoted as telling the police that he had carried out the attack because he had been unemployed for a long time and was “in a bad mood.”
Police officials said Kuo had been convicted of illegal drug use in May.
Local media reported that after his parents divorced, Kuo went to live in Japan with his mother, who subsequently married a Japanese man. After his mother died of cancer, Kuo returned to Taiwan to live in Taipei with his aunt.
Kuo was quoted by police as saying that he left home last week after having a quarrel with his aunt; since then, he had been sleeping in a public park near Hejiang Street (合江街).
In response to the MRT attacks, the National Police Agency (NPA) demanded that police in Taipei and New Taipei City increase security at public entertainment venues and university campuses to try to prevent future incidents.
Meanwhile, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday called for a “social movement” of caring for others as a means of protecting oneself.
“The opposite of love is indifference, not hatred — if you care for others, you’re also protecting yourself,” Ko said, adding that the increase in “random” stabbings was “absolutely” a problem that needs to be addressed.
While saying Monday’s incident had been handled well, Ko said that more has to be done to prevent similar incidents, adding that the city government had discovered a “hole” in the social safety net, and that the question of how to find and counsel socially isolated people was important to address.
While the city government has systems in place for tracking alcoholics, potential suicides and drug addicts, there is no system in place to keep track of the socially isolated, he said.
Ko called for the establishment of a screening system for psychological problems.
He added that to prevent inspiring further “copy-cat” attacks, the city government would not provide security camera footage of attacks to the media.
The city government has ruled out installing X-ray machines and other security equipment on the MRT system because of the high costs doing so would entail, he said.
Additional reporting by Abraham Gerber
North Korea tested nuclear-capable rocket launchers, state media reported yesterday, a day after Seoul detected the launch of about 10 ballistic missiles. The test comes after South Korean and US forces launched their springtime military drills, due to run until Thursday. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Saturday oversaw the testing of the multiple rocket launcher system (MRLS), the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said. The test involved 12 600mm-caliber ultra-precision multiple rocket launchers and two artillery companies, it said. Kim said the drill gave Pyongyang’s enemies, within the 420km striking range, a sense of “uneasiness” and “a deep understanding
North Korea yesterday fired about 10 ballistic missiles to the sea toward Japan, the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, days after Pyongyang warned of “terrible consequences” over ongoing South Korea-US military drills. Pyongyang recently dashed hopes of a diplomatic thaw with Seoul, Washington’s security ally, describing its latest peace efforts as a “clumsy, deceptive farce.” Seoul’s military detected “around 10 ballistic missiles launched from the Sunan area in North Korea toward the East Sea [Sea of Japan] at around 1:20pm,” JCS said in a statement, referring to South Korea’s name for the body of water. The missiles
RECOGNITION: Former Fijian prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy serves as a stabilizing force in the Indo-Pacific region Taiwan can lead the unification of the Chinese people, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Polish president Lech Walesa said in Taipei yesterday, adding that as the world order is changing, peaceful discussion would find good solutions, and that the use of force and coercion would always fail. Walesa made the remarks during his keynote address at a luncheon of the Yushan Forum in Taipei, titled “Indo-Pacific Partnership Prospects: Taiwan’s Values, Technology and Resilience,” organized by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Walesa said that he had been at the forefront of a big peaceful revolution and “if
‘UNWAVERING FRIENDSHIP’: A representative of a Japanese group that co-organized a memorial, said he hopes Japanese never forget Taiwan’s kindness President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday marked the 15th anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, urging continued cooperation between Taiwan and Japan on disaster prevention and humanitarian assistance. Lai wrote on social media that Taiwan and Japan have always helped each other in the aftermath of major disasters. The magnitude 9 earthquake struck northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011, triggering a massive tsunami that claimed more than 19,000 lives, according to data from Japanese authorities. Following the disaster, Taiwan donated more than US$240 million in aid, making it one of the largest contributors of financial assistance to Japan. In addition to cash donations and
RSS