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.
RSS