Taipei Times: Did you know who Chen Chin-hsing (
Christine: I did know who he was and when I first saw him, I went blank.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
McGill: We were all scared. When he came in, the first person who saw him was Christine. She was playing the piano at that time. He had his arm around her neck, pointed a gun at her, and forced her to walk up the stairs. As soon as I saw that, I told the whole family to do exactly what he says and don't make any sudden movements. We knew he had killed people and raped people although we didn't know how many. But we knew we were dealing with a very desperate, dangerous criminal. That is why I said to my family do not resist him.
TT: How did the shooting start?
McGill: There was shooting between the police and Chen for nearly an hour. The police attacked the house to try to kill him, and then he began to shoot. He had two guns, one pointed at my head. With the other he was shooting at the police.
TT: Did you try to resist?
McGill: We were all tied up. He kept saying `sorry, sorry' when he was tying us up. He tied our hands behind our back, went to the telephone and called the police saying he held us hostage. He wanted to speak to top officials. But it seemed the police would not believe him. He became very angry and called the media and told them his demands. He said that unless his demands were satisfied, he would not release his hostages. After that, the police came to find out what it was all about. When they arrived, he warned them to stay away from the house and they would not. When they came closer, he started to shoot the gun, and the police started to shoot back at him.
TT: How do you respond to comments from skeptics, notably Pai Pin-pin (
McGill: We can understand how she feels. It is not possible for us to say that we would have forgiven Chen if one of our family members had been killed. Perhaps we would not. I don't know. Because we are Christians and Christ teaches us in the Bible to love your enemies and to pray for those people who treat you badly. Even at the time the shooting was taking place, we were praying for ourselves to be released from the situation and that Chen could have the evil around him replaced by love. But I cannot say that if one of us had been killed we would be able to handle the situation the way we did. All I can say is that I understand why Pai Pin-pin holds this resentment towards the man. But we would like to share with people like her how it is possible to overcome the difficulty. By doing so, we hope we can ease their pain.
TT: Have you had the chance to talk to Pai?
McGill: So far we haven't had the opportunity to talk with her. We are not making any of the arrangements for our visit to Taiwan.
TT: Did any of you go through psychological counseling because of the crisis?
McGill: We all received psychological counseling after we were back in South Africa. Unfortunately, we only started getting counseling two months after the incident took place. Anne had more counseling. She became depressed later because she began to ask herself why she didn't prevent us from getting shot.
TT: How would you describe your memory of Chen?
McGill: He was much smaller and younger than me. He did not look very fierce to me. But he had his gun in his hand and pointed it at my daughter, and that was enough to frighten me.
Anne: He wasn't aggressive when he spoke to us but he was very aggressive when he spoke to the police.
Christine: There is something about his eyes that were really scary one time when he pointed his gun at me. He didn't make me feel scared in general.
TT: Is it true that you were mad at the media during the episode?
McGill: I think the media play a very important role in society, but that does not give the media the right to be irresponsible. They prevented my daughter from getting into the ambulance and when I became angry, the media were annoyed at me. The cameramen and reporters were more interested in getting photographs and stories than about saving my daughter's life and that is irresponsible and inexcusable.
TT: Would you comment on the way the police coped with the situation?
McGill: Crises like this had never occurred in Taiwan before so the police were obviously not prepared. In the first two hours, they began with violence instead of negotiation. But after my daughter and I were evacuated, the police behaved exceptionally well. I learned that from watching TV at the hospital. Before the shooting, no policemen spoke to us to understand the situation inside the house. Although they did not shoot a lot, they did shoot. They only needed to fire one shot, and that could provoke Chen to kill us.
That is why I have criticism for the police in the book but I must also say that the police seemed to learn their lessons very quickly. I know they have looked up the problem and addressed the problem. But I admired police chief Hou Yu-yi, who came on the scene. To me he is a man who has courage, a man who has compassion, a man who has understanding and a man who can control the situation. So when he arrived on the scene, he was able to take charge and to make things work the way they should.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from