The suspect in a two-day hostage situation in Taitung, Lin Kuo-cheng (林國正), was taken to a detention center adjacent to Taitung Prison yesterday after being questioned overnight at the Taitung District Prosecutors’ Office.
Lin surrendered to police at about 4:30pm on Tuesday after a 21-hour standoff.
Due to concerns about attempts to escape or destroy evidence, a local judge approved a request by prosecutors to detain Lin incommunicado.
Photo: Chen Hsien-yi, Taipei Times
Lin is expected to be charged with robbery, holding victims against their will and other crimes.
“Lin was exhausted when he was brought in, so we allowed him to rest. We began questioning him at 7:30 pm,” Taitung District Prosecutors’ Office lead investigator Hsu Hung-ju (徐弘儒) said.
The questioning lasted more than eight hours and ended at some time past 3am yesterday, Hsu said, adding that when Lin was transferred to a cell at the Taitung Prison’s detention center he quickly fell asleep.
Lin fled from police attempting to arrest him on Monday evening by escaping to the top of a residential block in Taitung, where he ran along the rooftops before finding an unlocked door and entering a building.
He took three National Taitung University students there hostage with what appeared to be a handgun.
After releasing two students during the standoff, Lin continued to hold one student, Chang Yu-ming (張育銘), before surrendering peacefully to police on Tuesday afternoon.
Taitung police yesterday announced that Lin’s weapon was a modified handgun, which was capable of firing bullets and not a toy gun as was reported on Tuesday evening, adding that further forensic tests would be conducted on the weapon.
Communicating with reporters via online social media, Lin said he had been wrongly convicted on prior kidnapping and robbery charges and accused Taitung police sergeant Chen Po-sen (陳柏森) of framing him.
The Taitung Police Department denied Lin’s claim at a news conference yesterday, with Chen saying he planned to sue Lin for defamation.
“What Lin said is false and we have asked prosecutors to investigate Lin’s allegation. I trust that the judiciary will undertake a thorough investigation into this matter,” Chen said.
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