A four-year-old girl was yesterday decapitated in an apparently random attack in Taipei in full view of her mother, police said.
An unemployed man, identified as Wang Ching-yu (王景玉), has been detained in connection with the gruesome killing.
The attack occurred at about 11am when the girl, surnamed Liu (劉), and her mother were on their way to an MRT rail station in northern Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) to meet the girl’s grandfather and two of her siblings for lunch.
Photo: Chin Jen-hao, Taipei Times
Liu was riding a bicycle on Huanshan Road Sec 1, when she was attacked, Taipei City Police Department Neihu Precinct investigation unit head Yang Kun-ming (楊坤明) said, adding that the attacker grabbed the girl from behind and decapitated her with a cleaver.
Passersby and area residents subdued the attacker and called the police, who arrested the suspect upon arriving at the scene, Yang said, adding that police were still trying to determine the motive.
Liu’s mother told reporters that her daughter, nicknamed Xiao Deng Pao (小燈泡, little lightbulb), was riding a bicycle about a meter ahead of her when the bicycle got stuck and could not climb onto a sidewalk.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
When the attacker approached the girl, her mother said she thought he was going to help her pick up her bicycle, but instead he began attacking her.
She said she was still closing the distance between her and her daughter when the man started attacking Liu, and she was unable to pull him away from her daughter due to his strength.
The girl’s mother said that when area residents who heard her screams for help rushed to the scene, she saw that her daughter had been decapitated.
“I never thought this society was so dangerous,” the mother said, expressing the hope that her daughter would be the last victim of a random attack.
“Xiao Deng Pao told me that she missed her brother and sister, so she wanted to pick them up,” her tearful mother said. “I am very sad. I will never see her again, and she will never see her brother and sister again.”
The girl’s mother called on the government for measures to guarantee the nation’s working mothers’ peace of mind, saying: “The government said it is focusing on families and education, so how could this happen?”
The girl’s parents and grandparents were later seen kneeling next to her body, weeping.
“Society is sick,” her grandmother said.
An angry mob attempted to assault Wang yesterday afternoon when he was escorted by police out of the Neihu Precinct to board a vehicle to take him for further questioning, with some in the mob shouting: “Do you have no conscience?”
Curses and yells of “Kill him” from the mob descended into scuffles and police were eventually forced to return him to the station.
According to police, Wang had previously been treated at a psychiatric hospital in the city.
Wang was quoted by police as saying that he did not know the victim, and that he had purchased the knife earlier in the morning.
Records showed that Wang, 33, had sought treatment at Taipei City Hospital’s Songde Branch, a public psychiatric hospital, but he does not have a government-issued disability card, police said.
The hospital confirmed that Wang had sought treatment there once in 2014, but said that does not prove he has a mental illness. At the time, he had admitted to using narcotics, but a drug test returned negative, the hospital said.
Further investigation would be required to discern whether Wang had sought psychiatric treatment elsewhere, the hospital said.
Wang has convictions for drug offenses and is unemployed, police said.
In related news, earlier media reports that Wang allegedly attempted to scale the walls of Taipei Municipal Xihu Elementary School near the scene of the attack appeared to be erroneous.
School officials rejected the allegations, but said that military instructors from the school’s safety center and local police have tightened security and stepped up patrols around the campus.
The girl’s murder was the third apparently random killing of a child in Taiwan in four years.
Last year, an intruder entered a bathroom at an elementary school in Taipei and slashed the throat of an eight-year-old girl.
In 2012, a man cut the throat of a 10-year-old boy in a bathroom at a video game arcade in Tainan.
However, National Police Agency Deputy Director-General Chen Chia-chang (陳嘉昌) said at a legislative session that yesterday’s killing was an isolated case.
Police would set up additional patrols to prevent similar incidents, Chen said.
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
Seven hundred and sixty-four foreigners were arrested last year for acting as money mules for criminals, with many entering Taiwan on a tourist visa for all-expenses-paid trips, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Saturday. Although from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 last year, 26,478 people were arrested for working as money mules, the bureau said it was particularly concerned about those entering the country as tourists or migrant workers who help criminals and scammers pick up or transfer illegally obtained money. In a report, officials divided the money mules into two groups, the first of which are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
RSS