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Reporters wait to be briefed on the crime outside a police station in Neihu, Taipei, Monday.
Taipei, March 28 (CNA) A 4-year-old girl was decapitated in an apparent random attack in Taipei Monday in full view of her mother, police said.
A man said to be in his forties has been detained in connection to the gruesome killing.
The attack occurred late Monday morning when the girl, whose name has not been revealed, and her mother were on their way to a local metro station in northern Taipei's Neihu District.
Local TV footage showed the decapitated body covered in white cloth on a sidewalk near the child's strider bike.
A bloodstained kitchen knife was found near the crime scene.
Suspect in child's beheading has psychiatric treatment record: police
2016/03/28 17:26:02
The suspect (center) is escorted by police officers when being transferred Monday.
Taipei, March 28 (CNA) A man detained for allegedly killing a 4-year-old girl in an apparent random attack in Taipei on Monday had previously been treated at a psychiatric hospital in the city, according to Taipei police.
Records showed that the 33-year-old man had sought treatment at the Taipei City Hospital Songde Branch, a public psychiatric hospital, but he does not have a government-issued disability card, the police said.
The hospital confirmed that the suspect had sought treatment there once in 2014, but added that it does not prove he has a mental illness. At the time, the man admitted to taking drugs, but a drug test came up negative, the hospital said.
It said further investigation would be required to find out whether the man had sought psychiatric treatment elsewhere.
The suspect, identified only by his surname Wang, has also been convicted for drug offenses and is currently unemployed, the police said.
Accompanied by her mother, the child was riding a strider bike on a street in Neihu District around 11 a.m. when the attacker struck, said Yang Kun-ming (楊坤明), head of the investigation unit of the Taipei City Police Department's Neihu Precinct.
The suspect grabbed the child from behind and decapitated her with a cleaver, Yang said.
Passersby and residents of the area subdued the attacker and called the police, who arrested the man when they arrived on the scene, Yang said, adding that police were still trying to determine the man's motive.
According to an Apple Daily report, the child's mother, who was in shock after witnessing the incident, told police that when the suspect appeared near her daughter, she thought he was trying to help the child because her strider bike had stuck a bit at that point.
The child and her mother were on their way to a metro station in northern Taipei's Neihu District to meet the girl's grandfather.
The girls' parents and grandfather were later seen kneeling next to her body, weeping.
"The society is sick," the tearful grandmother told reporters.
(girl's grandmother)
There was a temporary traffic jam at the crime scene as many pedestrians gathered at the site after the incident, which occurred during the busy lunch hour.
It was the third apparently random killing of a young child in Taiwan in four years.
Last year, an intruder entered a bathroom at an elementary school in Taipei and slashed the throat of an 8-year-old girl.
In 2012, a man cut the throat of 10-year-old boy in a bathroom at a video game arcade in Tainan, southern Taiwan.
However, Chen Jia-chang (陳嘉昌), deputy director-general of the National Police Agency, said at legislative session that Monday's killing was an isolated case and that the police will set up additional patrols to prevent similar incidents.
Monday's gruesome murder sparked hundreds of angry messages on social media.
"Animals are better than this," one person wrote.
"Execution on the spot. A life for a life," another comment read.
"Ending a young life and destroying a family for no reason," another person wrote. "Is there no way to revise the law to stop this kind of irresponsible behavior?"
(By Yiu Kai-hsiang, Lu Hsin-hui and Christie Chen)
Murder of 4-year-old girl stirs death penalty debate
2016/03/28 21:11:02
Taipei, March 28 (CNA) The brutal beheading of a 4-year-old girl in an apparent random attack in Taipei on Monday has renewed debate over the death penalty, which is still carried out in Taiwan, with advocates asking opponents if they still favored abolishing it.
A 33-year-old man has been detained in connection with the gruesome killing of the girl as she and her mother were on their way to a subway station in Neihu District in northern Taipei late Monday morning.
The suspect grabbed the child from behind and decapitated her with a cleaver. The girl died on the spot, according to police.
The tragedy sparked a heated debate in the Internet community, with Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡), the executive director of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, saying that she was "very, very, very sad" about the tragedy on a Facebook post.
She wrote that she really wanted to find a solution on how to stop such incidents.
Some netizens argued, however, that people found guilty of "felony murder" should be directly executed and others said those found guilty of killing others should pay for what they have done.
Kuomintang Legislator Wang Yu-min (王育敏) said the attack was simply unacceptable, and she called for public support for her proposal that would stipulate automatic death penalties, or life sentences under specific circumstances, for people who murder children under the age of 12.
Asked whether the incident would affect his support for abolishing the death penalty, New Power Party Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) said he has pushed for reforms of the country's penal system, which includes protecting the rights of children and the families of victims.
Lin, who has served as the head of Amnesty International's Taiwan branch, said it was time for Taiwan to make improvements in these areas to avoid the repetition of similar incidents in the future.
The newly elected chairwoman of the KMT, Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), questioned those opposed to capital punishment, asking "Are you still in favor of abolishing the death penalty?" while expressing her support for the bill proposed by Wang.
President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) expressed her sadness over the brutal killing through Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Wang Min-sheng (王閔生).
Tsai said the country should stem these types of tragic crimes by strengthening education, improving the economy and mental health for individuals and striving to maintain social order, according to Wang.
Monday's incident was the third case of a random child murder in Taiwan in the last five years.
In December 2012, a 29-year-old unemployed man named Tseng Wen-chin (曾文欽) murdered a 10-year-old boy in Tainan and allegedly said he killed him because he wanted to be imprisoned. Tseng was given a life sentence by the Tainan District Court the next year.
Tseng also reportedly suggested that he would not receive a death sentence because he only killed one person, a comment that drew a public outcry and sparked a debate over the death penalty at that time.
In June 2015, an 8-year-old girl died of multiple organ failure after she had her throat slit by 29-year-old Kung Chung-an (龔重安), who claimed to be looking for a random target at her school in Beitou District in Taipei.
The killer said he murdered the girl because prisoners get better food than he was getting in his daily life. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, and the case also reinforced support for the death penalty and led people to question those who oppose it.
(By Lu Hsin-hui, Ku Chuan, Justin Su, Chen Chun-hua and Evelyn Kao)
