Junkie shot dead in car pursuit. Police went too far?

Did the police went too far killing the junk from close range?

  • Yes, they should have waited longer
  • No, they acted as reccomended as the junk was a threath for by-passers
  • No idea, i did not heard of the incident

0 voters

I guess most of you saw the Hollywood style purchase on TV yesterday.
Junkie sniffing glue, seems to be on another planet and tries to escape from the police.
A half hour chase ended when a Cop who lost temper shot the guy from close range in the head (and not only in the legs and stomach like Taipei Times wrote) The body laying on the ground showed a lot of blood on the back of his head ( non-censured version was shown on TVBS yesterday late night)
Sad ending, big sensation on TV.

In most countries, a car is perceived as a weapon, but this guy was even not trying to roll over the cops.
He just tried to escape constantly with a car having 4 FLAT tires already…!

For what I saw on TV, the police went to far. They should have followed him untill his car was totall loss or stuck somewhere.
Your opinion? Justice ruled, or Cop showed of too much?

I think the cops finally got fed up with being made fools of. The half-hour of chasing is no exaggeration, FTV had a reporter in a car right behind the chase and that’s exactly how long it went on for.
It was really amusing that the cops would not overtake the car even when they had a chance. Notice also that traffic was only too ready to make way for the driver even it was obvious he was being pursued. :laughing:
51 shots were reported fired from start to finish.

At the end there I was expecting the cops to come under attack for shooting a guy in a red t-shirt.

Oh, not only was the guy being a public menace with the car, but he was reportedly armed. If I heard right, the cops said he had two guns in the car.

I seriously think they are asses. He was driving slowly. Would have run out of gas. They could have done it another way.

Aside some “sniffing glue” nothing which could be used as “arms” was found in the car…
They “suspected” the guy had arms in the car, but it is easier to kill hime first and check the car AFTERWARDS.
No questions to ask :fume:

My “Dubious News Source” tells me that the driver told the police he was armed. She also tells me that he had threatened a foreign couple at gunpoint in Chingmei around midnight. Anyone can confirm that?

When I saw the news-footage, I kind of got the feeling they were overreacting in a clumsy way - but what if he had a gun (as he claimed), and started shooting at people before the police was able to take him out?

The police showed themselves to be utterly incompetent. Why couldn’t they block his escape? Why couldn’t they just shoot a few rounds of something into the guy’s engine block? Jeez, I have more trouble getting through Taipei’s streets than that guy did.

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

[quote=“Maoman”]I have more trouble getting through Taipei’s streets than that guy did.[/quote]So hopefully you learned something from watching TV today. It’s not every day that you can say that. :wink:
Agreed that he had it way too easy. I think my grandma could’ve outrun them on her bicycle. Did you notice all the cops that the procession (I hate to call it a chase) went past, just standing there with their thumbs up their butts? :noway:

The version that I heard yesterday was that the roadblock was tipped off about him and they were warned he was armed. I’m sure the story is going to change a great deal before the final version of the truth is established.
Our wonderful media, never letting the facts get in the way of a good story…

China Post article:
Police shoot ex-convict to death in Tucheng

An ex-convict refusing to be stopped by police for questioning was shot to death near Tucheng yesterday.
Tucheng is a city some five miles south of Taipei. Chung Chang-hai, 42, of Tucheng, was dead on arrival at the Hoping Municipal Hospital in Taipei.
Captain Hsueh Ching-lien, head of the Wanhua Police Precinct, [quote]said an internal investigation is under way to find out if the shooting was unnecessary[/quote].
Altogether 51 shots were fired against Chung, who was speeding away from Taipei after police had failed to stop him at the intersection of Chungshan South Road and Roosevelt Road.
Tipped by informants that Chung, who had done time for burglary and drug abuse, was carrying weapons, precinct detectives tried to flag him down at the President Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall shortly before noon.
Chung didn’t stop, and two warning shots were fired.
But Chung sped into the county of Taipei with police in hot pursuit.
Detectives from the Haishan Police Precinct joined in the chase. Five of the shots hit Chung, two in the belly and three on the legs.

[quote]No weapons were found aboard the white sedan Chung drove[/quote], however.
The tips were given detectives of the Wenshan Police Precinct, whose jurisdiction includes the city of Hsientien.
“We do not rule out the possibility that our detectives tried to catch Chung on wrong information,” said a Taipei police lieutenant in charge of internal investigation.

Taipei Times;

Hail of lead ends car chase

CAUGHT ON FILM: In a drama some were likening to a scene from a movie, a junkie was gunned down by police in his car after leading them on a citywide pursuit
By Rich Chang
STAFF REPORTER
Monday, Sep 18, 2006,Page 1
A wild car chase through the streets of downtown Taipei ended when the drug-addled driver of a vehicle that sped away from a police stop died from his wounds after officers fired a hail of bullets at his vehicle in a running engagement.

The drama enthralled the city’s residents, as much of the chase was caught on television by a camera crew covering major political protests near the scene of the action.

The chase began when police received a tip-off of a suspicious vehicle near the protests that might be carrying firearms, said Hsueh Ching-lien (薛清蓮), the director of Wanhua Police District of Taipei City Police Department. A patrol car was sent to locate the vehicle and began following it.

At 9:20am, police officers in their cruiser ordered Chung Chang-hai (仲長海) – a convicted petty theft and drug user – to stop his car to be searched near Zhongshan S Road and Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, only blocks away from the Presidential Office.
After initially pulling over, Chung refused to exit his vehicle and allow police to search his car. As he accelerated away from the scene, one of the officers, who had been standing beside the car, fired several shots at the rear right tire of the vehicle.
The incident was captured on film by a TV crew.
Police then began to chase Chung. Several patrol cars joined in the chase, as did the TV crew, which kept filming as the police fired their pistols toward Chung’s car out of the open windows of their cruisers.
Although Chung’s tires were flat after being shot, he continued to drive, ramming police cars a number of times.
His car finally rolled to a stop about half an hour after the chase began at Kangding Road, Wanhua District. Police rushed the vehicle and pulled Chung out of the car, but found he was mortally wounded.
Chung died in an ambulance on the way to a hospital.
“Police fired a total of 51 shots during the shooting, and five shots hit Chung Chang-hai in his stomach and legs,” Hsueh said.
Police did not find any weapons in Chung’s car, only glue that he had apparently been sniffing.
Some TV commentators criticized the handling of the incident, saying police had fired too many shots.

[quote]They also said the police had endangered the public by firing so many shots near the ongoing sit-in demonstration aimed at ousting President Chen Shui-bian[/quote] (陳水扁).
Authorities said they were looking into the incident.

We are investigating whether the officers involved in the chase went too far in their handling of the incident,” Huang said.
He said that Chung, 43, had a criminal record of theft and drug use

Very poorly handled. Do the cops here have no training boxing in a car? In spinning around a moving car? The guy was an idiot; he needn’t be dead. And the cops needn’t have been firing off rounds in the city… didn’t that lead to a bystander’s death a while ago?

[quote]No weapons were found aboard the white sedan Chung drove[/quote]Well that ain’t right. The car (a Ford Aztec) was black, having been resprayed. It had started out red.

[quote=“Taipei Times”]
After initially pulling over, Chung refused to exit his vehicle and allow police to search his car. As he accelerated away from the scene, one of the officers, who had been standing beside the car, fired several shots at the rear right tire of the vehicle.[/quote]That’s not right either, since the right rear tire was shot out some kilometers away when he got caught in traffic and a cop got out of one of the pursuing cars and threatened the driver with a pistol trying to persuade him to give up. The guy made to drive off again and the cop put two rounds into the tire.

A lot of hack reporting on this one.

Things could have been handled better, for sure. I don’t know why they didn’t corral the car in with the police cruisers like you see in the USA on those ‘Cops’ shows.

But I can’t say I have a lot of sympathy for the guy either. If you don’t do what the cops say, you’re heading for trouble. The guy had many opportunities to save his life.

Suggesting a cop lost his temper in shooting him at point blank range is poor news reporting or personal analysis, in my opinion. Cops have a hard job to do. You try doing it.

That was some terrible police work! Anyone notice the terrified faces of all the innocent bystanders that were more or less in the line of fire when the cops were shooting? Good thing they didn’t hit anyone.

Now theres the report I want to see, what happend to the other 46 bullets? There could be a great piece with bullet holes in walls, car owners who have driven off with a bullet in their car etc.

Well the cops were bad. They shoulda put a few caps in his head earlier on. AS for the bystanders… they shoulda run instead of standing there gawking.

The cops have been so weak that nobody respects them even when they flash a gun in your face. There should be more shoot first ask questions later of criminals driving away with shot out tires away from the police

I am not a cop that is right, but the cop who fired the final rounds from close range (the ones shot through the left window which hit the guy in the head) was in no circumstance in danger. I guess that it is indeed very difficult to judge what to do, but majority seems to agree that it was not the best way to end this pursuit.

It just showed in real that this police force is not trained enough to handle such a situations.
The only “excuse” what can be called for is the totally blinded silver screen windows which made it impossible for the cops to know if the guy had a gun or not, and if he would point it towards them …

Yes Ceevee you’d like to send him a diplomatic protest and start another useless round of discussions before taking any action.

The fool was a danger to himself and others. The fault is with the cops being to gentle and not finishing it earlier. Luckily no bytanders were killed by this nutter.

Soon you will be caling the poor srry bastards human rights were abused.

No recourse to the law when you’re already dead I say.

The cops were totally incompetent and foolish.
Watching the news footage there were so many opportunities for the police to end the chase but they didn’t take them.
They also could have ended it without shooting the idiot behind the wheel quite easily.

Hot pursuit. Yeah right.

Sped away?
:roflmao:

Where is all this exaggerated reporting coming from. The Taipei Times is about as wank as the police here.

So he was high on substances, he ignored police commands, he drove at crazy speeds and put people’s lives at risk ? So what was so special about this guy to make the police pick on him ?

Yes Ceevee you’d like to send him a diplomatic protest and start another useless round of discussions before taking any action.

The fool was a danger to himself and others. The fault is with the cops being to gentle and not finishing it earlier. Luckily no bytanders were killed by this nutter.

Soon you will be caling the poor srry bastards human rights were abused.

No recourse to the law when you’re already dead I say.[/quote]

Just ask yourself if this footage would have been shot and shown on TV in Vegas, NY, London Paris or another city. THAN it certainly would have been a big debate, but hey, what the heck, it was just a junk for you no?
I am still convinced that this could have ended without taking the guy down. that is all. Remarks as a diplomatic protest are sine qua non.
I am not defending the attitude of the victim pall. People do mostly got wht they deserve, but this guy ,drug addict or not , did not had to die because of “wrong assumptions”.
You would have had another view presumably if you were one of the bypassers hearinf FWIIIET next to your ear when a bullet went bye no?