319 Incident

On March 19, 2004 Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party President Chen Shui Bian and Vice-President, Annette Yu, were campaigning for election in Tainan City, Taiwan. They were standing in the back seats of an open top jeep moving slowly through a crowded street. At 1:45pm, President Chen reported feeling pain on his abdomen area and Lu in the knee area. Both thought that they were hit by fire crackers which were common in Taiwan during political rallies and parties, but minutes later they were rushed to a nearby hospital for gunshot wounds.

Immediate investigation revealed that the assassination was not plotted by China. Two bullets casings were found by civilians – suggesting only 2 shots were fired at the motorcade. One bullet penetrated through the windshield of the jeep, ripped through multiple layers of clothing, grazed Chen’s stomach and was stopped in his clothes until it was recovered by hospital staff. The other bullet also penetrated through the windshield and hit the vice president’s knee cast and was found in the jeep. The president and vice-president were treated at a nearby hospital. The president suffered an 11cm long and 2cm wide flesh wound that required 14 stitches. Both were released from the hospital in the evening. No suspects were identified, although several people appeared suspicious in surveillance camera but these people came forward after they recognized themselves on national broadcast footage.

In subsequent months, Taiwanese authorities requested four American forensic scientists, led by the famous Dr. Henry Lee, to help with the investigation. Dr. Lee and his colleagues conducted series of crime scene reconstruction and forensic examinations before submitting a 130-pagereport on August 29, 2004. The report confirms that President Chen and Vice-President Lu’s wounds were caused by gunshots, which were fired from outside of the vehicle. However, it was impossible to determine from which direction that bullets entered the Jeep due to incompleteness of evidence presentation and lack of accurate record on the Jeep’s speed. Bullets were fired from a home-made gun but investigators were unable to determine if bullets were from the same gun. Meanwhile, Taiwanese government formed the “319 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee” to probe the shooting.

On March 7, 2005, one year after the shooting, Taiwanese police held a press conference and announced that they had a suspect: Chen Yi-Hsuing, an unemployed man who blamed the President for his economic woes. Police found Chen resembles one of the unknown persons shown on video footage. They also discovered a connection between Chen and an illegal gun maker by confirming Chen as being the fifth hand of a possible weapon. According to Chen family, Chen committed suicide two weeks after the shooting; Chen was found drown in a harbor on March 28. Chen’s wife stated that her husband left suicide notes but it had been burned by family for fear of embarrassment. In addition, family members recalled Chen was behaving strangely following the shooting. Police interpreted that Chen committed the crime and then killed himself due to guilt.

On August 17, 2005, the case was officially closed after the investigators concluded that Chen Yi-Hsuing acted alone. But, conspiracies theorists and President’s political opposition claimed that the police connection between Chen and the shooting was far-fetched and absurd. The assassination attempt was engineered by the president to win sympathy votes. Secondly, it is impossible to prove Chen was the assassin now that he is dead, and the murder weapon was never found. In 2006, Chen’s wife retracted her testimony, and claimed at a news conference that she had been coerced into making statements implicating her husband. Taiwanese media suggested that Chen was killed by another person because his corpse was found wearing a formal suit. Original investigative report states family saw him wearing different attires as he was going to fishing. Many unsatisfied Taiwanese legislators, including Vice President Lu, believed there was more than one shooter and had lobbied for continue investigation on the shooting.