An armed man yesterday robbed a Hsinchu City branch of Taiwan Cooperative Bank (合作金庫銀行), shooting and killing a bank clerk before allegedly hanging himself.
Hsinchu police identified the suspect as 39-year-old Pan Chien-yuan (潘健源), who had prior criminal convictions for illegal drugs, robbery, blackmail and illegal possession of firearms.
Footage from a surveillance camera showed Pan holding up a handgun as he dashed into the front entrance of the bank’s branch on Dongmen Street in downtown Hsinchu at 1:55pm.
Photo: Wang Chun-chieh, Taipei Times
Witnesses said a man fired twice as he entered the bank, shouted out a common Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) expletive, jumped over a counter and fired at 50-year-old bank clerk Lai Wei-ta (賴偉達).
The suspect left the bank with about NT$733,000 in cash and shot twice at traffic police outside before running to a nearby 25-story residential building, where a standoff ensued, police said.
Local residents said the situation was tense, with the standoff lasting for more than an hour, during which several gunshots were heard.
Screen grab from Liberty Times Net
Among the about 120 police surrounding the area were SWAT teams, which carefully worked their way into the building to flush out the suspect, police said.
In the late afternoon, police said they found Pan, who allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself with cables from a waxing machine in a second-floor stairwell.
He was found half-kneeling with banknotes littering the floor around him and the handgun sticking out from a pants pocket, police said.
Photo: CNA
Evidence at the scene suggested that Pan tried to get out of the building, but could not open any of the windows or emergency exits from inside, and committed suicide after being cornered, police said, adding that he likely did not want to face criminal prosecution and another prison term.
Pan, a native of Changhua County, had served prison terms for multiple criminal convictions, police said.
After his last conviction, he was released on parole in October 2015, with that term ending in April, they added.
Lai was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead by doctors, who said that the bullet hit him in the chest and punctured a lung.
Police said the suspect fired five shots inside the bank during the robbery, two on the street and eight inside the building while being pursued by police.
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