Woman Shot Dead in Hunting Accident

A woman died this morning after being accidentally shot in the head by her boyfriend while hunting in Miaoli County last night.

Mr Chen, 62, an aboriginal from the Amis ethnic group, accompanied by his 62 year-old girlfriend, Ms Lin, and a male cousin, went to Sanwan mountain district in Miaoli County late last night to hunt using spotlights and two homemade shotguns.

At around 11:00pm, Chen spotted the reflective eyes of an animal around 100 meters away and fired a shot. His cousin called out: “you’ve hit a person: Hurry up and come down.”

Chen rushed down the hill to find Lin unconscious in the back seat of the van with an obvious head injury. The two men rushed Lin to the Wei Gong Memorial Hospital in Toufen Township.

A medical examination revealed that the bullet had entered the upper part of the right eye and had lodged in the back of Lin’s skull. At around 2:00am, Lin was transferred to Cheng Gong Memorial Hospital in Linkou District, New Taipei City. However, due to the seriousness of the injury, medical treatment was ineffective, and the family agreed to abandon treatment at around 11:30am this morning.

The three people involved in the incident are from Hualien County, but had been staying in Toufen Township, as Chen, a form-work contractor, was working on a construction site in the district.

After interrogating Chen and his cousin separately, and taking them to the scene of the shooting to reconstruct events, police determined that the case is an accidental shooting.

The two firearms used by the hunters were unregistered. Chen is being investigated for violating weapons control regulations and negligent death.

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