A Malaysian intern at the Kaohsiung Medical University allegedly set a fire and stabbed a hospital staff member multiple times before jumping off a sixth-floor balcony early yesterday morning.
Lin Wei-yang (林瑋揚) was declared dead at 5am yesterday and had sustained extensive bone fractures, police said.
Police said 28 year-old Lin made a video recording apologizing to Taiwanese and saying that he hoped Taiwan-Malaysia relations would not suffer because of his actions.
Photo: CNA
According to police investigations, Lin was a student in his seventh year at the university and had not done well academically, failing multiple subjects.
An application was filed on Monday to defer his studies and delay his graduation. The school added that Lin had a history of emotional problems and was on a list for intensive counseling sessions.
Lin allegedly set fire to the changing room in the dental clinic on the second floor of the hospital’s W building before locking the door behind him and leaving.
Police said they suspected Lin set the fire to divert attention, because he subsequently went to the third floor of the C building and repeatedly stabbed a 46-year-old staff member on duty, surnamed Wu (吳). Wu’s neck was also slashed.
A nurse allegedly saw Lin leaving the building and he told her: “I’m going to kill myself; [you] go in the room.”
Lin abandoned his knife and clothes as he fled the crime scene and made his way to the sixth floor of an adjacent building, where he set up a video camera on a balcony railing and made the recording, police said.
According to the police, Lin said in the video he wished to be cremated and that he was willing to donate his organs. He also made an explicit request not to be given emergency medical treatment and jumped from the balcony.
Meanwhile, the wounded Wu managed to reach the hospital’s blood bank and called for help before passing out from loss of blood. He was in critical condition, police said at the time of going to press.
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