One of the suspects in a robbery at the home of a popular livestreamer’s relative has died from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound while the other suspect has been arrested, Changhua County police said on Monday.
Two armed men on Feb. 4 reportedly broke into the home of the uncle of shopping livestreamer “DiuDiu Mei” (丟丟妹) in Changhua’s Shengang Township (伸港), stealing NT$300,000 in cash.
Changhua Criminal Investigation Corps head Hsu Chung-yen (許忠彥) said that although the men wore balaclavas and removed their vehicle’s license plates, surveilance camera footage enabled police to track them down.
Photo courtesy of the Changhua County police via CNA
Poilce were preparing to apprehend the primary suspect, surnamed Yang (楊), in a motel in Yunlin County on Saturday, Hsu said.
When they arrived at the site, the motel’s garage door opened and they heard a gunshot from inside a vehicle in the garage, Hsu said.
Police fired at the vehicle twice before finding Yang in the driver’s seat with a gunshot wound to his head, Hsu said, adding that he could not confirm whether the bullet that killed Yang matched those used by police or came from the gun found in the vehicle.
It is quite likely that Yang shot himself, Hsu said.
Yang was rushed to Yunlin Christian Hospital and was early the next day transferred to Changhua Christian Hospital, where he succumbed to his injury on Monday morning.
Yang’s suspected partner in the robbery, surnamed Lee (李), was arrested in Taichung on Sunday.
Police said Lee denied being involved, claiming that he had not known Yang for long and that he had waited in his vehicle during the robbery.
Police seized clothing and balaclavas that were allegedly used in the robbery, one modified shotgun and 12 shells, one pistol and 92 bullets, and NT$130,000 of the stolen money, they said.
It remains unclear why that particular house was targeted, how the firearms were acquired, how the men knew that there was a large amount of cash at the residence and whether there was an inside informant involved, police said.
DiuDiu Mei’s father on Friday last week said that the family waited until Feb. 11 to report the robbery because they were concerned for their own safety.
He said that his brother had NT$300,000 on him because he received a payment from a business partner earlier in the day of the robbery, denying rumors that the family owns a gambling business.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods