Wu Shan-chiu, 49, a councilor from the People First Party, was pronounced dead at the hospital at about 1 p.m. after he was shot four times about 90 minutes earlier at the office in Hsintien City, police said.

Police said they were trying to determine the motivation behind the murder.

Interior Minister Lee Yi-yang expressed grave concern over the shooting by calling Hou You-yi, director general of the National Police Agency.

Hou also had Taipei County police chief Lin Kuo-tung head an ad hoc task force to investigate the case.

The PFP expressed shock, saying it was a clear example of the worsening situation of law and order.

Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei also expressed concern.

Su Kung-hui, deputy chief of the Hsintien Police Station, said it was premeditated murder, and police were screening all footage from all surveillance cameras in the neighborhood in order to identify the gunman.

PFP Legislator Joanna Lei said Wu had devoted much of his work to preventing illegal gravel mining from Hsintien Creek, and he had been calling for a tougher crackdown on more than 10 illegal gravel mining companies in the area.

Chou Chung-yuan, a PFP deputy to the Hsintien representative body, said Wu’s murder might have been plotted by gangsters in connection with disputes with gravel suppliers.

Police said surveillance camera footage showed that the gunman — about 175 cm tall, and wearing a silver-color helmet, a shirt, and a pair of gray pants — fled the scene on a motorcycle after the shooting.

Wu’s aides told police that the gunman arrived at the office on the second-floor of a building on Section 2, Peihsin Rd. and asked — in Mandarin — whether the councilor was in.

He then drew a gun and shot at Wu, the aides said. The whole incident took less than a minute, they added.

An employee of a boutique on the first floor said she heard a few gunshots at about 11:20 a.m., and then saw a helmeted man rush out of the building and flee on a motorcycle, according to the United Evening News.

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