Tainan police yesterday provided details behind the arrest of two suspects in two shooting incidents in the city’s Syuejia District (學甲) last month.
Police officers on Wednesday tracked down and arrested suspected gangster Yang Chan-hua (楊展華) and an alleged accomplice, surnamed Kuo (郭).
Police said they had reviewed evidence and telecommunication records, and believe that Yang and a fugitive, Hung Cheng-chun (洪政軍), are the masterminds behind the so-called “Syuejia shootings.”
Photo: CNA
The gunman has been identified as Kung Hsiang-chih (孔祥志), they said.
Kung had left Taiwan after the shooting on Nov. 10.
Investigators found that Kung, Yang and Hung are friends who grew up together in Syuejia, and had formed a criminal ring, Tainan Police Department Deputy Chief Wu Ching-tien (吳敬田) said.
A wanted bulletin has been issued for Hung, an alleged gangster in Tainan nicknamed “Red Turtle” (紅龜), Wu said, adding that sources indicate that he was hiding in Tainan.
Kuo was in charge of preparing scooters to help Kung flee after the shooting, Wu said.
He is a member of another gang based in the city’s Annan District (安南), and the two groups likely colluded on the incident to muscle in on land development projects with millions of dollars in financial benefits, Wu said.
Police investigators said that working under the instructions of Hung and Yang, Kung went to a company building in Syuejia owned by a Tainan politician and riddled the place with 58 bullets.
Riding a scooter, Kung then allegedly headed to the Syuejia service office of independent Tainan City Councilor Hsieh Tsai-wang (謝財旺) and blasted its front with 30 bullets.
The shootings have raised public concern about safety, with the opposition politicians accusing Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) of the Democratic Progressive Party of negligence.
Kung reportedly was paid NT$500,000 for the job, and later that day boarded a flight out of the country.
He is believed to have been taken in by Taiwanese gangsters operating in Cambodia, while other main figures in the case went into hiding.
Prosecutor-General Hsing Tai-chao (邢泰釗) yesterday convened a meeting with the heads of major police jurisdictions to review the Syuejia shooting case, and ordered all police units to be on alert.
He called for the swift arrest of Hung, who has a criminal record that includes shooting and seriously injuring several people.
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