Wanted Criminal Escapes after Stealing Police Pistol
A suspect in Tainan City stole a police officer’s gun during an attempted arrest in Tainan City this morning, before escaping.
Police officers on Patrol on Wusheng Road spotted Yang Zheng-xun outside a breakfast store at around 6:00am this morning. Yang, who has an extensive criminal record, including escaping from, and assaulting police officers, was wanted after being convicted on sexual assault charges, and sentenced to a five-year prison term.
According to Apple Daily, Yang ran when he saw the police officers approaching, but then pretended to cooperate after one of the officers fired warning shots.
When the officer reached for his handcuffs, Yang grappled with the officer.
Security video footage from inside a convenience store and published by Apple Daily showed that Yang struggled with two of the police officers for around one minute, before taking one officer’s gun from its holster, and running away.
According to reports, the officer had holstered his pistol and clipped the internal safety buckle, but had not secured the outside cover of the holster.
The officers immediately called for reinforcements, and around 90 officers surrounded and cordoned off the area while a house to house search was carried out. However, no trace of the suspect was found, and the house to house search was called off after 9:00am.
At around 1:00pm this afternoon, a resident reported to police that he had just seen the suspect run barefoot out of a house in an alley off Wusheng Road. Officers again converged on the area, but failed to find the suspect.
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