The man accused of opening fire on a church congregation in southern California because of his political hatred for Taiwan dubbed himself a “destroying angel” in a seven-volume diary sent to a newspaper before the attack, the paper said on Wednesday.
David Chou (周文偉), 68, spent US$16.10 to mail seven thick photocopied volumes of handwritten Chinese text and a flash drive to the World Journal in the Los Angeles suburb of Monterey Park, photographs published in the newspaper showed.
The pages were titled Diary of an Angel Destroying Independence.
Photo: AFP
The diary pages were received on Monday, one day after Chou allegedly opened fire at a lunch gathering of mostly older parishioners of the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in the community of Laguna Woods.
Chou could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted of murder and attempted murder. He has not yet entered a plea and remained jailed without bail in Orange County pending a June 10 arraignment.
Authorities have said that Chou sat through a church service before attending the luncheon in honor of a former pastor.
When the gunfire erupted, doctor John Cheng (鄭達志), 52, charged Chou and was shot to death.
Authorities said he disrupted the attack and might have saved dozens of lives.
Louis Huang (黃敏境), director-general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, said he has confidence in US law enforcement to carry out the investigation.
He called on Taiwanese Americans to respect differences of opinion, but said that no one has a right to infringe on other people’s rights or to take someone’s life.
In Taipei, pro-independence political parties and advocates gathered at a rally to call for a memorial for Cheng.
Taiwan Republic Office director Chilly Chen (陳峻涵) hailed Cheng as “a hero who courageously confronted the evil force of people acting on behalf of communist China with the vile intention of killing all the Taiwanese congregants inside.”
Taiwan Independence Party chairman Peter Ku (古文發) and Trees Party (樹黨) executive Pan Han-kuan (潘翰觀) also called for plans to build a statue or a permanent memorial for Cheng, either in US or Taiwan, to commemorate the doctor’s selfless action.
Media reports said that Cheng, who was born in Taiwan in 1969, moved to the US with his parents when he was one-year-old.
His father was a doctor in Texas, and Cheng followed in his footsteps, later moving to southern California to practice medicine.
Chen said he would fly to the US next week.
“It is a must for us Taiwanese to go to the Laguna Woods church in person, to pay tribute to a real Taiwanese hero, Dr Cheng,” he said.
Additional reporting by Jason Pan
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