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Officer injured in Taichung shootout dies of injuries

Taichung police officer Yeh Hsi-tsai (葉錫財), gravely injured in a shootout with kidnapping suspects, yesterday died due to multiple organ failure he had suffered since Sunday night.

"Our mission to `save private Ryan' obviously failed," said Wang You-chi (王有智), the chief cranial neurology surgeon at Chungshan Medical University Hospital.

Wang said that in light of the organ failures, Yeh's family members decided to cease life-prolonging treatments at around 5am yesterday.

According to Wang, Yeh was shot in the face, with a bullet entering near his nose on the right side of his face and exiting through his left ear. Although the bullet did not pass through his brain, the heat of the bullet damaged his brainstem, which left him in critical condition since the shooting last Wednesday.

On Thursday, doctors removed 27 pieces of bone from Yeh's skull and kept him on life-support machines and medications. However, Yeh stopped responding to medical treatment and his blood pressure kept falling on Sunday night.

Minister of the Interior Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) said that Yeh and his colleague also slain in the incident, Sergeant Lee Chin-fu (李進富), will be enshrined and conferred with detective rank posthumously.

"In addition to mourning for the loss of Yeh and Lee, I hereby announce an unlimited strict crackdown on crimes, especially illegal firearms," said Su. "We cannot let our police officers shed their blood for nothing."

Lee was shot in the chest and was dead upon his arrival at the hospital.

Yeh is survived by his wife and four children and his parents. The family's home collapsed during the September 21, 1999, earthquake with an unpaid mortgage of an estimated NT$4 million. The family received a NT$5 million mortgage for their new home, and the three generations relied on the sergeant's monthly paychecks.

Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) said that the city government will take care of the two dead of-ficers' families.

"It is our responsibility to do so, no question about it," Hu said. "These police officers dedicated their lives to protect us. We will take care of their families."
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