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CIB rules out possibility shooting was staged

The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) yesterday ruled out the possibility the assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was staged, dealing a blow to opposition claims it was a cynical political stunt.

Bureau commissioner Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said no marksman would have been able to guarantee only minor injuries while shooting at the moving target.

Chen received a gash across his stomach and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) was hit in the knee in the shooting last Friday.

"It is impossible that the assassination attempt was orchestrated because the car was moving and no marksman could have this kind of shooting technique," Hou told reporters, adding that the open-topped jeep was travelling at 30kph.

Senior officers told reporters in Taipei they would leave "no stone unturned" in their investigation. But the special police unit set up to investigate the case still had no specific suspect despite having interviewed about 400 witnesses, checked photographs and video footage from the scene and carried out detailed ballistics investigations.

Police also said that DNA analysis proved blood found on the two bullets belonged to Chen and Lu.

Judy Cheng of the CIB told reporters the videotapes showed two shots were fired at Chen and Lu somewhere along a 50m stretch of the road where two bullet shells were found.

Video footage and witness accounts revealed Chen had started feeling ill within 50m.

Chen said he first believed he had been hit by a firecracker when he felt a sharp pain in his belly.

"I bore the pain and continued waving to my supporters as the motorcade proceeded,"Chen said yesterday. in his first public comments about the shooting.

He only realized he had been shot when the bodyguard told him he was bleeding, he saw Lu's bloody knee and spotted the bullet hole in the windscreen.
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