The gunman behind the church shooting was a Chinese immigrant: US Police
New Delhi: A deadly mass shooting at a Taiwanese church congregation in southern California – was carried out by an immigrant from mainland China – David Chou – who was motivated by hatred towards Taiwan, local authorities said on Monday.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said that “The suspect in Sunday’s attack had an absolute bias against the Taiwanese people, its country, as a Chinese or mainland national.”
“We know that he formulated a strategy that he wanted to employ. It was very well thought out from how he had prepared, both being there, securing the location, placing things about the inside of the room to perpetuate additional victims if he had the opportunity,” Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said.
Chou is believed to have launched the attack out of “politically motivated hate and was upset about political tensions between China and Taiwan.”
Taiwan has been ruled independently since the end of a civil war in 1949. It has its own democratically elected government and a powerful military. Authoritarian China claims the island as its own, insisting it is a renegade province that will one day be brought to heel.
The shooter opened fire during a lunch banquet at the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian church, which worships at Geneva Presbyterian, but was stopped when a pastor hit him on the head with a chair and parishioners used electrical cords to restrain him until police arrived.
(Vinayak)
