Vice President Annette Lu (
In a three-page statement issued Sunday evening, Lu described how she and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) were shot while campaigning in Tainan City and explained why they had stayed calm instead of stopping the motorcade and searching for the assassins.
"The March 19 shooting has not been solved yet, and we are accused of having staged it. As the one who was shot at first, I feel it is necessary to explain to the public what happened," Lu wrote in her statement entitled "Facts of the March 19 Shooting."
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
In her statement, Lu said two bullets were fired as she and Chen were standing on the open-top Jeep waving to cheering supporters in Tainan.
"I heard two loud shots and felt a sharp pain on my right knee," she said.
She said she looked down and saw a hole in her pants and the wound was bleeding.
While covering the wound with tissues, her right hand touched the bottom of Chen's jacket and felt it was wet, so she realized Chen had also been shot. At the same time, she saw a bullet hole in the windshield of the Jeep.
While Chen continued to wave to supporters, Lu ordered the bodyguards to drive the Jeep to the nearest hospital, to avoid a second attack.
On the way to the hospital, Lu pointed out the bullet hole in the windshield to Chen.
According to Lu, Chen said: "So it was a gunshot. I thought it was the explosion of fireworks. You should have told me earlier."
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