Authorities are investigating an apparent suicide by a highway patrol police officer, whose body was found with a gunshot wound to his head near a roadside office facility in Keelung’s Chidu District (七堵).
A local resident yesterday reported at about 11.20am that they found a person with a serious injury. An ambulance was dispatched to the scene and the injured man was taken to Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Keelung.
Despite emergency treatment, the man was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Photo: CNA
He was identified as a 44-year-old highway police officer surnamed Kang (康), based at the National Highway Police Bureau’s Chidu District Office.
He was found outside the office facility, next to a dismantled Chidu toll station on National Freeway No. 3.
A police spokesman said Kang appear to have taken his own life using a handgun, as a firearm was found at the scene.
Police have notified Kang’s wife, who is a patrol officer with the Keelung Harbor Police Department.
Two letters allegedly written by Kang were recovered, with one addressed to his wife and another addressed to Kang’s elder sister.
Kang reportedly wrote that he had been depressed since November last year, because he had been diagnosed with an illness and the condition was getting worse, despite seeing many doctors for treatment and taking prescribed medicine.
Kang allegedly wrote he did not know the exact nature of his illness, but because all attempts to treat it had failed he wanted to end his life.
It is the second suicide in the law enforcement agency in recent months. A young police officer took his life on Nov. 17 last year. A 23-year-old police officer, surnamed Lin (林), serving at a precinct in New Taipei City’s Zhonghe District (中和) shot himself in the head with his service revolver. Lin’s body was found on a rural road in Zhonghe District.
The apparent suicide was attributed to emotional distress, as fellow officers said Lin was distraught over his ex-girlfriend, as they had ended their relationship a few weeks before the incident.
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