The mother and the defense attorney of a Taiwanese exchange student arrested at his Pennsylvania high school on Tuesday for threatening to shoot up the school yesterday said his threat was “just a joke.”
Di Ying (狄鶯), a television and Taiwanese opera actress, told SET News that a gun found by US police in the bedroom of her son, Sun An-tso (孫安佐), was one that he took to the US to be used for a Halloween costume party.
She said the alleged threat to open fire at the school was either a joke or the result of a language misunderstanding, adding that she has hired a lawyer to represent her son.
Photo: Screen grab from Facebook
Sun, 18, the only child of Di and actor Sun Peng (孫鵬), went to the US last fall to attend Bonner and Prendergast Catholic High School in Drexel Hill, and lived with a host family in Lansdowne.
Sun An-tso was arrested after he allegedly warned a male classmate on Monday not to go to school on May 1 as he was planning to go on a shooting spree that day.
The classmate reported the comment to a school counselor and the school notified the police.
Photo: AP
After his arrest, officers searched his bedroom and reportedly found a military-style ballistic vest, a crossbow with scope and light, 20 rounds of 9mm ammunition, a military ski mask, an ammunition clip loader, a garrote and other items, the Upper Darby Police Department said.
A search of his school-issued iPad indicated searches on how to buy an AK-47 or an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, it said.
“When you add it all together, we believe that he was planning something horrible,” Upper Darby Police Department Superintendent Michael Chitwood said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Sun An-tso has been charged with one misdemeanor count of making terrorist threats and is being held at the Delaware County Jail in lieu of US$100,000 bail.
He is to undergo a psychiatric evaluation and a court hearing has been scheduled for April 11.
Defense attorney Enrique Latoison on Wednesday said that his client “had no intention or plans” to commit a school shooting and many items found were what he wore to school for a Halloween costume contest.
“I don’t believe what he said rises to the crime of terroristic threatening,” Latoison said. “He said: ‘Just kidding.’ I understand the heightened sensitivity, but he is not from here, he didn’t possess the same social skills of what it is to grow up in the post-Columbine generation... You and I understand that it’s not a funny joke, but maybe he doesn’t understand that.”
He declined to comment on the allegations that ammunition was found and the defendant researched buying weapons, but said that even if true, neither was illegal.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would offer assistance to protect Sun An-tso’s legal rights.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York has contacted his family, the local police department and the teen’s attorney, ministry spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) said.
The office would send staff to visit Sun An-tso and help his family if they want to visit him, Lee said.
Di is reportedly planning to leave Taiwan for the US today.
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
WARNING: If the defense budget is not approved by the legislature, systems such as the Harpoon missile coastal defense system would be impacted, Hsu Szu-chien said The armed forces have response protocols for a wide range of sudden contingencies, including the “Wan Chun Plan” to protect the head of state, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. After US President Donald Trump on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, concerns have been raised as to whether China would launch a similar “decapitation strike” on Taiwan. The armed forces regularly coordinate with government agencies and practice drills to ensure preparedness for a wide range of scenarios, Vice Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) told reporters before a meeting at
Russia sent a submarine to escort an empty oil tanker that the US military has been pursuing and attempting to seize for weeks, US media reported on Tuesday. The US has been chasing the oil tanker, formerly known as the Bella 1, since it evaded a US blockade around Venezuela and thwarted a US Coast Guard attempt to board it last month. Since being pursued by the US Coast Guard, the vessel has switched its registration to Russia, changed its name to the Marinera and the tanker’s crew reportedly painted a Russian flag on the tanker last month. It had been en route
RSS