Taipei City Police Department Commissioner Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) yesterday said that police were having difficulty identifying the two people who shot KMT Taipei City Councilor Chen Chin-chi (陳進棋) last Saturday -- even though police had collected two fingerprints, one palm print and two footprints from the abandoned scooter the gunmen used during the crime.
"We hsve not discovered any possible suspects at all, even after we worked on the fingerprints for hours," the city police chief said. "There are three possibilities. First, the suspects may not have any criminal records. Second, they may not have served in the military. Third, they are foreigners."
The police fingerprint database is composed of those people who have served in the military or who have criminal records.
Wang also said that a security video system got a picture of the two suspects when they abandoned their scooter in a public parking space. However, officers still could not identify them because the suspects wore their helmets all the time.
"In the video, they walked toward the camera separately after they parked the scooter. They looked extremely calm and normal. We are trying to investigate if any other security video system in that neighborhood captured their picture. Maybe we can find out where and how they escaped," Wang said.
A story in the Chinese-language news media yesterday reported that police had identified one of the suspects by matching up the two fingerprints, one palm print and two footprints they have collected.
When questioned, Wang did not confirm or deny the report.
Meanwhile, DPP Taipei City Councilor Chen Hsiu-hui (陳秀惠) said yesterday that Wang should resign from his post to take responsibilty for the failure to catch the killers.
Wang did not respond to the councilor's remarks.
The late councilor Chen was campaigning for his third term on city council. His campaign headquarters spokesman, Hung Chin-hao (洪金浩), said yesterday that he would negotiate with the Central Election Commission (CEC, 中央選舉委員會) to see if there is any possibility of finding another KMT candidate to replace Chen. However, his proposal was declined immediately by the CEC.
"According to the Election and Recall Law (選舉罷免法), Chen's registration as a city councilor candidate became invalid automatically starting from the moment he died. To ask another candidate to replace him is against the regulations and it is impossible," Yu Ming-hsian (余明賢), the chief of the CEC's First Section, said.
Meanwhile, the National Police Administration (
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