Three men were detained in Taichung yesterday after their vehicle was hit and they allegedly assaulted the other driver with a baseball bat, resulting in a serious head injury.
Chang Tun-liang (張敦量), 23, Chen Ching-hao (陳勁豪), 19, and Lee Wei-lin (李韋霖), 25, might be charged with attempted homicide, illegal confinement causing injury to the victim and “interference with public order,” the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office said.
The other driver — a 19-year-old student, surnamed Sung (宋), who is enrolled at Feng Chia University in Taichung — remains in a coma.
Photo: Hsu Kuo-chen, Taipei Times
A report by Sixth Police Precinct officers said that Sung was driving a Volkswagen with four friends in the early hours of Sunday morning when the vehicle sideswiped a Maserati sports car on Taiwan Boulevard, the city’s main thoroughfare.
According to a witness and video footage, Chang, Chen and Lee were yelling as they exited the Maserati and soon began punching and kicking Sung.
Lee, who had been driving, allegedly hit Sung with a baseball bat multiple times on the head, despite Sung’s apologies, police said.
After they arrived, police took the trio’s statements and let them leave the scene, the report said, adding that officers saw no reason to detain the trio, as the fighting had ended.
The three were questioned a second time by police, but were again sent home, the report said.
Later, after Sung’s mother took a copy of his medical report to the police precinct, prosecutors began to investigate. Summonses were served to the three on Wednesday.
News of the assault and the handling of the case resulted in a public outcry, while media reports saying that the trio came from wealthy families and had criminal records brought more condemnation.
At the hospital on Wednesday, Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕), accompanied by city officials, offered her apologies to the family and promised to take action.
Yesterday, Taichung city councilors debated the incident, with eight councilors carrying out a protest against the mayor and Taichung Police Department Commissioner Tsai Tsan-po (蔡蒼柏).
Taichung City Councilor Hsieh Chih-chung (謝志忠) of the Democratic Progressive Party said that the police chief should resign, and if he refuses to do so, Lu should be held responsible for the incident.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation