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.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
The Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office today requested that a court detain three individuals, including Keelung Department of Civil Affairs Director Chang Yuan-hsiang (張淵翔), in connection with an investigation into forged signatures used in recall campaigns. Chang is suspected of accessing a household registration system to assist with recall campaigns targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) city councilors Cheng Wen-ting (鄭文婷) and Jiho Chang (張之豪), prosecutors said. Prosecutors yesterday directed investigators to search six locations, including the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Keelung office and the residences of several recall campaign leaders. The recall campaign leaders, including Chi Wen-chuan (紀文荃), Yu Cheng-i (游正義) and Hsu Shao-yeh