Banciao prosecutors yesterday said Lin Cheng-wei (林正偉), the main suspect in the shooting of Sean Lien (連勝文), the son of former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), at a campaign rally on Friday could be forced to take a lie detector test over his claim that he mistook Sean Lien for Chen Hung-yuan (陳鴻源), a candidate for Sinbei City council.
Sean Lien was shot in the face and a bystander killed during a campaign event for Chen, who is Taipei County Council deputy speaker. He was rushed to National Taiwan University Hospital, where he underwent more than three-and-a-half hours of surgery.
The bullet entered the left side of his face and exited near his right temple, spokespersons at the hospital said, adding that he was in stable condition, able to smile and eat bread and rice porridge.
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Asked if he would need reconstructive surgery, the hospital said the patient’s appearance and bone structure were fine, but a further evaluation would be required after the wounds heal.
Banciao prosecutors said Lin and Chen Ming-hsiung (陳明雄), Chen Hung-yuan’s father, had been involved in a dispute over a land investment proposal, and Lin wanted revenge.
“I wanted to shoot Chen Hung-yuan ... I shot the wrong person,” Lin told reporters as police escorted him to the Banciao District Prosecutors’ Office on Saturday.
The suspect, who was ordered detained by the Banciao District Court on Saturday, is reportedly a member of a gang operating in Yonghe City (永和), Taipei County.
Prosecutors said Lin was known to have visited Chen Ming-hsiung’s headquarters to ask for money and threatened revenge after being turned down.
Prosecutors said the suspect arrived before the rally started, adding that the shooting appeared to have been premeditated.
The second victim, Huang Yun-sheng (黃運聖), 29 died on the way to the hospital.
Prosecutors said Lin appeared to have been acting alone.
Lin’s statement appeared to be at odds with Sean Lien’s account.
William Hsu (徐弘庭), Lien’s assistant, said the latter regained consciousness after surgery and said the gunman had shouted his name and “curse words” as he aimed his 9mm pistol at his head.
Sean Lien said he was pleased with the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) 3-2 win in the mayoral elections, a close friend who visited him in hospital said yesterday. The friend said Lien had congratulated Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) by telephone on his re-election.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching