Taichung City Police Department Commissioner Hu Mu-yuan (胡木源) yesterday said four police officers were punished for failing to take action while at a crime scene.
“They must be punished for misbehaving as law enforcement officers,” Hu said.
Hu said the officers were at the office of Weng Chi-nan (翁奇楠) on Friday when he was shot dead by an unidentified gunman.
The officers were allegedly connected to gang members and ignored the crime that took place in their presence, he said.
Hu said the officers were Traffic Chief Lin Chi-you (林啟右), Criminal Investigation Corps Third Division lieutenants Lin Wen-wu (林文武) and Shih Chang-hsing (石長興), and Sergeant Tai Chih-hung (戴志宏).
Hu said Lin Chi-yu would be removed from his administrative position. Lin Wen-wu, who will be retiring today, received a demerit.
Shih and Tai, meanwhile, only received citations, as they were following orders from their superiors.
Hu said the officers told investigators they went to Weng's office for a cup of tea at the invitation of a retired officer, but did not realize that Weng was there as well.
A gunman entered Weng's office on Da-dun 10th Street when Weng walked into the office at 4:20pm. Hu said a total of 16 shots were fired, with seven bullets hitting Weng.
Lai Jung-chen (賴榮振), a friend of Weng, was also wounded and remained in critical condition at press time.
Hu said a probe showed that Lin Chi-you and Lin Wen-wu did not see what happened as they were hiding under a coffee table during the shooting.
The four officers were not harmed, Hu said, adding that the gunman hopped into a vehicle and took off after firing the shots, Hu said.
A surveillance camera captured the gunman's face and the license plate of his vehicle, Hu said, adding that the picture of the suspect was distributed to the public.
Police confirmed the license plate was a stolen one.
The National Police Agency has dispatched 40 special force officers to Taichung following reports of a series of violent crimes.
Hu said he asked for help from the central government after consecutive shootings and kidnappings cases in recent weeks.
“As we don't have enough manpower at the moment, we can definitely use some help,” he said.
Also See: Taichung deploys SWAT to fight crime
CIVILIAN SIGHTING: Fishers from Penghu County took a photograph of a Chinese guided-missile destroyer near the median line of the Taiwan Strait China sent 77 military aircraft around Taiwan over a two-day period ending yesterday morning, an uptick in its activity over the past few weeks. Forty-one Chinese military aircraft were detected in the vicinity of Taiwan in the 24-hour period that ended at 6am yesterday, with 23 crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait and nine crossing its extension, entering the country’s northern, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones (ADIZs), flight routes released yesterday by the Ministry of National Defense showed. Of the nine aircraft that crossed the median line’s extension, were seven fighter jets and two drones that flew around
ESCALATING TENSIONS: The US called for restraint and meaningful dialogue after Beijing threatened Taiwanese independence advocates with the death sentence The US on Monday condemned China’s “escalatory and destabilizing language and actions” toward Taiwan after Beijing last week announced new guidelines to punish supporters of Taiwanese independence. Asked about the guidelines, which included the death sentence for “diehard” independence advocates, US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller said: “We strongly condemn the escalatory and destabilizing language and actions from PRC [People’s Republic of China] officials.” “We continue to urge restraint and no unilateral change to the status quo,” he said at the press briefing. The US urges China to “engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan,” Miller said, adding that “threats and legal
UNDER THE RADAR: Two US deputy assistant state secretaries visited Taiwan and met with foreign diplomats to discuss how to boost the nation’s international participation US officials who visited Taiwan earlier this week met with foreign representatives and told them that UN Resolution 2758 does not involve Taiwan nor should it be conflated with China’s “one China” principle, sources said yesterday. UN Resolution 2758 recognized the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China in 1971. Beijing has been misrepresenting it to exclude Taiwan from the international organization and its affiliates. A representative to Taiwan, requesting anonymity, quoted the US officials as saying during a meeting that as long as it is not specified in UN Resolution 2758, “everything is feasible” with regard to
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has