Taiwanese were still in shock yesterday at the brutality and unrepentant attitude of Cheng Chieh (鄭捷), the alleged perpetrator of the random killing spree on Taipei’s Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system on Wednesday that resulted in four deaths, with many saying they feel uneasy about using public transport even after Cheng was detained yesterday morning.
Cheng’s motives remained unclear, but a preliminary analysis points to a high probability of Cheng having some kind of psychosis, National Police Agency (NPA) Deputy Director-General Lin Kuo-tung (林國棟) said yesterday.
Cheng, a 21-year-old student at Tunghai University in Greater Taichung, had allegedly used a previously concealed knife to stab randomly at people on the MRT Bannan Line when the train was traveling from Longshan Temple Station to Jiangzicui Station, causing the death of four people and wounding another 23 people.
Photo: CNA
The alleged killer was detained by police at 4pm on Wednesday at Jianzicui police station for an official report of the incident to be logged and filed, before he was moved to the New Taipei City Police Department’s Haishan Precinct for fingerprinting.
Cheng was transferred to the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office at 2:39am yesterday, but Cheng and his police escorts were surrounded by angry people who tried to attack Cheng during the transfer. The police managed to protect him from harm.
The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office filed a request with the district court to detain Cheng at 6am. The court approved the request on the grounds that the evidence of the crime was solid.
Photo: CNA
Cheng was not barred from visitation as he had clearly committed his actions alone and did not need to collude with others, the court said.
The Taipei Detention Center received Cheng at 6:40am yesterday, about 14 hours after the stabbing spree.
The center said Cheng, now detainee No. 1892, was in solitary confinement in an effort to protect him, as well as other inmates.
Many civilians, both local and from afar, brought flowers to the MRT’s Jiangzicui Station and left notes to mourn the deaths of the passengers.
Fearing for their children’s safety, many parents escorted their children to school yesterday.
One mother, surnamed Lin (林), said there are only four MRT stops between her home at Jiangzicui Station to her child’s school at Fuzhong Station, but after Wednesday’s incident she was very worried and got up early to take her child to school before heading to work.
The NPA stepped up security at each MRT station in both Taipei City and New Taipei City, starting at 8pm on Wednesday, and yesterday canceled all days off for police officers at the Railway Police Bureau.
The bureau heightened alerts across all forms of public transportation, including on the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) trains and at all Taiwan High Speed Rail stations.
According to a report by the Liberty Times, the Taipei Times’ sister paper, a man surnamed Chien (簡) expressed concern about the incident’s impact on society, as it was the first incident of homicide on Taiwan’s public transportation system.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats