US forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee (
"I discovered many pieces of debris on the windshield and on the dashboard. That means the bullet came from a location outside the vehicle.
"In addition, according to the forensic analysis we did at the scene and patient records and X-ray photos provided by the hospital, I can confirm that Lu was injured by the same bullet that went through the windshield," Lee said during a press conference at Tainan's Tayih Landis Hotel.
Lee and forensic photographer Calvin Ostler flew to Tainan on Friday to visit the medical personnel who attended to the president and the vice president after the shooting.
After staying at the hospital for nearly four hours, Lee and Ostler went to the crime scene on Tainan City's Jinhua Road to recreate the incident and try to determine where the shots might have come from.
To help Lee carry out his research at the crime scene, the Tainan City Police Department sealed off a section of the road and requested that residents there turn off their lights so that Lee and his colleagues could use a laser instrument to help them determine where the shots might have come from and at what angles the bullets might have travelled.
The crime-scene research lasted for four and a half hours.
Investigators now believe that the gunman might have fired the first shot from in front of No. 18, Section 3, Jinhua Road. That would mean that there was a distance of approximately 8m between the shooter and the president's vehicle at the time the shots were fired.
The first bullet went through the Jeep's windshield and slightly wounded Lu in the right knee.
The suspect then fired a second shot, which grazed Chen's stomach.
During yesterday's press conference, Lee said that it is difficult to figure out the exact location of the shooter.
He said that forensic scientists can only determine a potential area from which a bullet might have been fired, which might help investigators identify a suspect from available video.
"We can only make an assumption about the area in which the suspect could have been located," he said.
"All our research is based on police reports about where the two bullet casings were found, how the vehicle was moving and how many people were at the scene," Lee said.
"However, none of the information was 100-percent accurate so it is impossible to come up with a precise analysis."
Before he left for Taipei, Lee said that he would utilize the "Ultralight" machine that he and his colleagues brought from the US to scan evidence at the National Police Administration's Criminal Investigation Bureau, and that he will update the public again when appropriate.
Once in Taipei, Lee immediately went to Lu's residence to examine her wound.
Lee, two other US forensic scientists and a Connecticut lawyer were scheduled to leave Taiwan today.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
RSS