Tainan police yesterday captured a wanted criminal after a 10-hour chase that ended on the roof of a construction site.
Police launched a massive search after Yang Chen-hsun (楊政勳) earlier in the day resisted arrest and grabbed a police officer’s handgun before fleeing, the Tainan City Police Department said in a press release.
Yang was armed and dangerous, and evaded police by hiding in a neighborhood in Tainan’s North District (北區), it said.
Yang was known to be violent, and had a string of convictions for sexual assault, narcotics offenses, illegal firearms possession and involvement in organized crime, police said.
Yang had resisted arrest before, when police closed in on him in April. He escaped by ramming his motorcycle into four officers, injuring them.
A SWAT team and other police units comprising more than 100 officers yesterday tracked down Yang, Tainan City Fifth Police Precinct Deputy Chief Hsieh Cheng-fu (謝承甫) said.
News footage showed police in combat gear and wearing flak jackets, with some carrying shields, going through houses in a cordoned-off neighborhood in their search for Yang.
“It was a dangerous situation and a high level of precaution was needed, because the handgun he wrestled off the officer had 11 bullets in the magazine,” Hsieh said.
The chase began at about 6am when a police officer spotted Yang and his girlfriend in a car when the two stopped at a breakfast shop, police said.
Yang slowed down his car as though he would cooperate when the officer ordered him to stop, but he then jumped on the officer and took his handgun from its holster, they said.
Yang ran into an alley and hid in an apartment that was unoccupied at the time, but neighbors who had witnessed the incident called the police to report Yang’s whereabouts, they added.
Yang continued to move through the area, remaining hidden for the rest of the morning and afternoon, police said.
As police surrounded the neighborhood, Yang was seen heading toward a construction site, where police officers backed by a SWAT team found him hiding under a tarp on the building’s roof, they said.
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