3-19 shooting incident

The 3-19 shooting incident (Chinese: 三一九槍擊事件) was an assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu while they were campaigning in Tainan, Taiwan on March 19, 2004, the day before Taiwan's presidential election. Their injuries were not life-threatening, and both Chen and Lu were released from Chi-Mei Hospital on the same day without losing consciousness or undergoing surgery.

The attack provoked shock and unease in Taiwan, where political violence of this kind was commonplace against non-KMT members 40 years earlier. Reaction to the incident divided along partisan lines, with some pan-Blue supporters believing the incident was faked in order to win the sympathy of voters in the upcoming election, which Chen and Lu won by 29,500 votes. In August 2005, the case was officially closed with all evidence pointing to a single deceased suspect, Chen Yi-hsiung, but Chen's opponents as well as Annette Lu have insisted on the continuation of the investigation.

President Chen and Vice President Lu were standing in the back seat of an open convertible Jeep moving slowly through a crowded street when around 1:45 PM, a bullet penetrated the windshield of the vehicle, grazed Chen's stomach, and was stopped in his clothes. Chen received a flesh wound 11 centimetres (4.3 in) long and 2 centimetres (0.79 in) wide. The other bullet penetrated the windshield and hit a cast on Lu's knee which she was wearing due to an earlier injury and was later found in the vehicle. At first both believed that they had been hit by firecrackers, which are common in Taiwanese political parades and rallies. Chen realized that it was something more serious when he noticed that he was bleeding from the abdomen and that there was a bullet hole in the window. Chen reported pain in his abdomen and Lu reported pain in her knee and they were taken to the Chi-Mei Hospital. At 3:30 pm, the spokesperson for the president, Chiou I-jen, announced that the "National Security Mechanism" had been activated. By 5:30 pm, both the Pan-Blue and Pan-Green coalitions announced that they would cease all scheduled campaigning activities.

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Wikipedia