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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Hate crime charge added for suspect in US church murder
The Geneva Presbyterian Church is pictured in an undated photograph in California. Photo: AFP
/ Staff writer, with CNA
Southern California prosecutors on Friday added hate crime charges against the Las Vegas man suspected to be behind a shooting that killed one person and injured five at a Taiwanese Presbyterian church in Laguna Woods, California, last month.
After reviewing additional evidence in the case, prosecutors this week filed an amended criminal complaint to include a hate crime charge against David Wenwei Chou （周文偉）, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said.
Chou, a 68-year-old Taiwanese-American, allegedly carried out the shooting on May 15 — when the parishioners were at Geneva Presbyterian Church for a luncheon celebrating one of the church’s pastors — killing physician John Cheng （鄭達志） and wounding five other members.
Chou has already been charged with a long list of felonies, including one count of murder, five counts of premeditated attempted murder, four counts of possession of an explosive device, and felony enhancements of lying in wait and personal discharge of a firearm causing death, the prosecutors said.
On Friday, they added a special circumstance that Chou “intentionally killed his victim because of his race, color, religion, nationality or country of origin,” and five enhancements of a hate crime for each of the five counts of attempted murder, the Office of the Orange County District Attorney said in a news release.
If convicted on all charges, Chou faces a maximum sentence of death, the office said.
He is scheduled to be arraigned at the Central Justice Center on Aug. 19 and is being held without bail as a result of the special-circumstance murder charge, the office said.
Media reports said US authorities suspected the shooting was politically motivated after they found notes in Chou’s car indicating that he did not believe Taiwan should be an independent state separate from China.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
