TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) - Investigators said Monday they've identified the ``most likely suspect'' who fired a shot that slightly injured Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian one day before he was narrowly re-elected last March. But the suspect, Chen Yi-hsiung, drowned shortly after the March 19 shooting and police thought it was a suicide because the man prepared a will just before his death, said Hou You-yi, head of the Criminal Investigation.
| Convenient for President Chen, it's suspected he had the shooting staged to get the sympathy vote. |
Hou said that the suspect was unhappy about the economy and the president's governance and left notes on a desk calendar describing his feelings. The investigator read one that said, ``I felt depressed. After Chen Shui-bian became the president, the economy turned bad and we could not sell our house.'' Another note said, ``If Chen is reelected, I am old and cannot change anything.'' Hou added, ``We looked for his motive, and we found he was displeased with the social reality.''
| Most assassins are. Either they're so disturbed that they run out and pop someone important, or they're so disturbed that they meet up with sinister, dark forces who induce them to pop someone important. Question is, which was Chen? |
The pre-election shooting grazed the president's stomach as he was riding in an open-top Jeep in a campaign parade in the southern city of Tainan. Hou said video footage shot before the shooting put Chen Yi-hsiung at the scene and an extensive investigation of the weapon used traced it back to the suspect, who purchased his handgun shortly before the shooting. Hou said that the suspect's wife confessed to her that he shot the president. Hou told reporters the women said her husband was quiet for several days after the shooting. After she saw the TV footage of her husband at the scene, she asked him if he did it, Hou said. ``He said, 'I did it and I will handle it myself,''' Hou said quoting the suspect's wife. The wife said the suspect asked her to trim his hair and sideburns to change his looks.
| Bastion of support, she was. |
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