A man who on Thursday allegedly shot three people dead before turning the gun on himself died from his injuries yesterday, police said.
The shooting in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢) was the result of a dispute between rival gambling operations, police said.
Taoyuan police identified the alleged killer as Chang Chun-hao (張峻豪), 20, who they said shot himself in the head with a handgun when cornered in an alley after trying to escape from the crime scene.
Photo: Chou Min-hung, Taipei Times
The killings were carried out execution-style, with Chang shooting the three people in the head on the eighth floor of an office building, Jhongli Police Precinct chief investigator Hsu Mu-sheng (許木生) said.
Two of the victims were men, surnamed Yin (尹), 23, and Ku (古), 22, and the other was a woman surnamed Huang (黃), 21.
Chang was armed with a Colt 9mm semi-automatic pistol and fired a total of nine shots, Hsu said.
Photo: CNA
Police questioned a man, surnamed Yang (楊), who was the sole survivor of the attack.
“The killer came into the office and I saw him fire one shot toward the window. As soon as I heard the gunshot, I hid under a desk. It was only after the gunshots died down that I came out to have a look,” Yang was quoted by police as saying. “I was shocked to see the bodies of Yin, Ku and Huang, as they were covered in blood. I called the police on my mobile phone right away.”
Police officer Pai Hung-hsiang (白泓翔) was among the officers who arrived at the scene.
Photo: Chou Min-hung, Taipei Times
Pai said he and the other officers saw Chang, dressed in black, exiting the building’s front door.
He said they thought Chang looked suspicious and followed him.
The officers stopped Chang after following him for about 100m and asked him to show his identification card, Pai said.
“Chang seemed to cooperate and reached into his bag, but instead pulled out a gun and fired at us before fleeing into an alley. We were not hit and pursued him,” Pai said.
“Another police unit arrived at the other end of the alley and cut Chang off, then he shot himself in the head just above the right eye and collapsed to the ground,” he added.
A preliminary investigation found that Chang was operating an illegal online gambling site.
He was in a dispute over profits and competition with a rival illegal gambling site, headed by Yin and run by Yin’s girlfriend, Huang, with Ku and Yang as employees, police said.
Police searched Chang’s residence and office, and seized 15 computers allegedly used for taking bets on local and international sports games from paid members.
Chang made an estimated gain of about NT$3 million to NT$5 million (US$98,684 to US$164,474) per month from the illicit operation, police said.
Chang’s operation started losing money in March, when more than 1,000 of his users moved to Yin’s gambling site in response to a rumor that Chang was having financial difficulties, which he suspected was spread by Yin, a potential motive for the shooting, investigators said.
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 —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS