Taichung City Police Chief Frank Chiu (邱豐光) yesterday said footage from alleged gangster Weng Chi-nan’s (翁奇楠) office could only be retrieved as far back as May 22, adding that the public should have full confidence in the police investigation.
“The hard drive from the security video system can only retain video clips spanning a maximum of five days,” Chiu said.
The Taichung police chief made the remarks in response to allegations that police were withholding certain video clips of the crime scene. On Monday night, police made public video clips taken during the homicide, in which Weng was shot to death in his office on May 28.
Video clips made public during the press conference on Monday put Taichung police in a bad light, showing four senior officers and a retired officer playing mahjong in the room when Weng was murdered.
The footage also showed Weng exiting his car and walking into his office, followed by his girlfriend and an employee surnamed Lin (林) at 4:19pm on May 28.
The gunman is then seen walking into the office and opening fire about 30 seconds later.
Lin, who was carrying Weng’s briefcase, dropped it in an alley while the gunman was shooting. He is seen trying to retrieve the briefcase after the shooting, but it was retrieved by police after they arrived at the scene.
Asked if the briefcase contained drugs, Taichung City Police Department First Precinct’s Investigation Team Captain Yang Chun-hsien (楊春賢) said the briefcase contained Weng’s bank books, stamps, business cards and company posters.
Meanwhile, police confirmed that a total of nine police officers were seen in footage between May 22 and May 28, adding that prosecutors were trying to determine the nature of their relations with Weng.
Yang said Criminal Investigation Corps’ Second Division sergeants Huang Chih-ming (黃志明) and Chiang Chen-chien (江振堅), officer Huang Lung-sheng (黃隴聲), Third Division sergeants Lu Chien-bang (陸建邦) and Hou Chih-peng (侯志鵬) were the other five officers seen in the footage. The five officers received minor demerits.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to
RSS