Taoyuan prosecutors on Friday charged a man with shooting and killing his partner during a nighttime hunt, after allegedly mistaking her for a wild boar.
He was charged with negligence resulting in death, as well as contravening the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例), as the ammunition and two modified rifles confiscated from him were not registered.
The incident took place on Wednesday night in the mountain forests of Miaoli County’s Zaociao Township (造橋), where the suspect, surnamed Chen (陳), 61, said he was hunting game with the victim, surnamed Lin (林), 61, and his cousin.
Lin was reportedly in a common-law relationship with Chen.
After traveling from Taoyuan, the party roamed about in the dark along a forest trail, with Chen and his cousin each carrying a modified rifle, Chen said.
“We were using flashlights to look for wild animals... Then at a distance, I thought I saw glowing eyes reflecting the light from my flashlight,” prosecutors quoted Chen as saying. “So I took aim and fired one shot with the rifle, thinking it was a wild boar, but my cousin yelled at me: ‘You shot someone! Come over here quickly!’ Then we saw [Lin] was bleeding with a shot just above her right eye.”
The two men rushed her to a local hospital, but she was pronounced dead the next day, and police launched an investigation.
Police said they confiscated the modified rifles, which take metal pellets as bullets, more than 100 metal pellet balls, one modified nail gun capable of long-range fire and 45 sharpened pieces of metal for the nail gun, all of which were unregistered and were found in the car that was used for the hunting trip.
Chen and his cousin are Amis, and the case has renewed debate over Aborigines’ rights to practice their hunting traditions, the need to protect Taiwan’s wildlife and the use of illegal or unregistered firearms by hunters, as well as what is perceived to be lax control of the underground trade in game meat.
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