Chen Yi-hsiung (died 29 March 2004) was the prime

suspect In law enforcement jargon, a suspect is a known person accused or suspected of committing a crime. Police and reporters in the United States often use the word suspect as a jargon when referring to the perpetrator of the offense (perp in dated U ...

in the

3-19 shooting incident The March 19 shooting incident (), also known as the 319 incident, was an assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian Chen Shui-bian (; born 12 October 1950) is a retired Taiwanese politician and lawyer who served as the president of ...

, a failed attempt to assassinate the

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Chen Shui-bian, and perhaps

vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

Annette Lu, on 19 March 2004, one day prior to the 2004 presidential election. Chen was unemployed and blamed the president for his economic woes.

Finding Chen Yi-hsiung

Working off of clues from a video that was shot near the attack, authorities spent months tracing the bullets used in the assassination attempt to an illegal gun maker. After questioning the individual, investigators were able to follow the purchase to Chen Yi-hsiung, who was found drowned in a harbour in

Tainan Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in southern Taiwan facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and also commonly known as the "Capital City" ...

10 days after the attack.

Controversy

While the case has officially been closed, with the main suspect Chen Yi-hsiung dead, police are having a hard time proving their theory. While Chen Yi-hsiung's death was officially ruled a suicide, with both suicide notes (supposedly burned by his family) and a video of his wife apologizing for her husband's crime backing up this theory, opponents of president Chen disagree with this conclusion. President Chen's foes claim that the assassination attempt was planned in order to win sympathy votes, which led to president Chen winning the election by just over 29,500 votes, barely hours after the attempted assassination.

Notes

External links

Taiwan Assassin 3/19
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Yi-hsiung 20th-century births 2004 suicides 2004 crimes in Taiwan Failed assassins Taiwanese criminals Suicides by drowning Year of birth missing Suicides in Taiwan Place of birth missing