Taiwan Church News
3664 Edition
May 16 – 22, 2022
Headline News Reported by Lin Yi-yin A 68-year-old Taiwanese, later identified as Weiwen Chou, deliberately attended an elderly Taiwanese Sunday service held at Geneva Presbyterian Church, Laguna Woods, California on May 15. Prepared with a bag of Molotov cocktails and a bag of extra ammunition, Chou locked up the front-gate and windows with iron chains and super glues after the service, and then started an indiscriminate shooting toward dozens of elderly people at an lunch assembly around 1:30 p.m. This heinously planned killing caused 1 dead, 5 critically injured and all the assembly with great shocks. To protect the elderly, Dr John Cheng, who was 52, a renown and experienced physician specialized in sports medicine, was gunned down from front by the killer with three shots when he rushed forward to stop the killer. The other injured elderly are four men aged 66, 75, 82 to 92 years old, and one woman aged 86. According to CNN, Orange County Sheriff Donald Barnes expressed that Dr Cheng is a hero in this incident. “Without the actions of Dr. Cheng, it is no doubt that there would have been numerous additional victims in this crime”, said Sheriff in CNN coverage. One of Chou’s handgun was jammed after first round shooting. During Chou’s reloading of the second bullet cartridge, Rev Billy Chang grabbed a chair to strike the killer down to the ground. Immediately he jumped on Chou and called the other members to subdue and hogtie the killer with extension cords. “That group of churchgoers displayed what we believe is exceptional heroism in interfering or intervening t stop the suspect”, said Undersheriff Jeff Hallock in a CNN coverage. In a interview, Rev Billy Chang expressed that Dr Cheng is a filial and pious Christian and it was the first time he visited the Geneva Presbyterian Church to accompany his mother for the Sunday service. As Dr. Cheng left his two children in teenage, Rev Chang called the church to pray for his children, his family and the injured brothers and sisters in hospital. Translated by Peter Wolfe |