A man who called himself "Hui" yesterday faxed a number of media outlets and claimed responsibility for the shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) in Tainan on March 19.
According to the fax, "Hui" said that he "invested" lots of money in illegal bets on a victory by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
However, he was stunned because there seemed to be growing support for Chen and Lu. To make sure he would not lose his bet, he decided to "do some-thing" to change the result of the election.
As of press time yesterday, the Keelung City Police Department had determined that the fax was transmitted from a fax machine at an OK convenience store in the city's Baifu community at 5:30pm on Tuesday.
They have viewed the store's security videotapes and have located a suspect.
Meanwhile, Kaohsiung City Police Department's Criminal Investigation Corps (CIC) denied a link between a warning about a possible shooting and the attack on Chen and Lu in Tainan.
According to a news story in the Chinese-language media yesterday, the National Police Administration's (NPA) Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) received a warning about a potential shooting on March 19.
It immediately asked city precincts to investigate and stay alert.
Kaohsiung's CIC investigated, and responded to the alert by saying that the warning was a false alarm.
The shooting took place in Tainan City only hours after the warning was issued.
The CIB yesterday confirmed that the warning had been disseminated by a high-ranking NPA official.
CIC head Chen Chia-chin (
He said that such warnings were frequently received, and that every warning was always completely investigated.
"To be precise, we got the order from CIB to investigate the warning only four hours before the shooting took place in Tainan," said Chen Chia-chin.
"We completed all necessary investigations and reported the results accurately -- it was a false alarm," he said.
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