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
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS