The man who stabbed three people to death in Taipei, Taiwan, appeared to have prepared meticulously for his attack, police investigators said on Saturday, even as they struggled to find a motive for his spree of violence.

警方調查人員上週六表示，在台灣台北持刀刺死三人的男子似乎為這次襲擊做了周密準備，但他們仍難以確定其瘋狂暴力行為的動機。

Two days before the man began his assault with smoke grenades and a long knife in the city’s main subway station on Friday afternoon, he checked into a cheap hotel only 50 yards from the store where he ended his spree, Taiwanese police officers said.

該男子於上週五下午在台北市的一個主要捷運站使用煙霧彈和一把長刀發動襲擊，台灣警方稱，在發動襲擊兩天前，他入住了一家距離其行兇的最後一個地點——一家店鋪——不到50米的廉價旅館。

He had left evidence of his plans in digital form, they said, and on foot and bicycle he scouted the locations where he attacked stunned shoppers and commuters.

警方表示，他以數字形式留下了其作案計劃的證據，並曾步行和騎單車踩點，勘察他襲擊驚駭不已的購物者和通勤人群的地點。

And during his hourslong assault, he changed his outfit five times, the police said, although they did not make clear exactly where or when.

警方還稱，在持續數小時的襲擊過程中，他換了五次衣服，但沒有明確說明具體的地點和時間。

“Up to now, we have not been able to clarify his motive. We know only that he had a plan for this attack,” Lu Chun-hung, the chief of the criminal investigation division of the Taipei City Police, told reporters. He also sought to douse rumors that the attacker, whom the police identified as Chang Wen, had acted in league with others who remained at large.

「我們目前為止沒有辦法釐清動機，我們只是知道他有這個攻擊的計劃，」台北市警察局刑事警察大隊大隊長盧俊宏告訴記者。他還對嫌疑人並非單獨行動、仍有同夥在逃的傳言進行了澄清。

“We’ve reviewed all the surveillance camera footage and found that he acted alone and did not have any contact with anyone else,” Mr. Lu said.

「我們調了所有的監視器，他都是單獨行動，沒有跟任何其他人接觸，」盧俊宏說。

Three people died from wounds suffered in the attacks, and the attacker died after apparently jumping from the fifth floor of a retail building where he had just fatally stabbed a man. Eleven other people were injured, six of whom were still in the hospital on Saturday, said Taiwan’s minister of health, Shih Chung-liang.

在此次襲擊中，三人傷重不治，襲擊者在當地一家購物場所的五樓刺死一名男子後，疑似從該處跳樓身亡。台灣衛生福利部部長石崇良稱，另有11人受傷，其中六人截至上週六仍在住院治療。

The bloodshed drew intense public attention in Taiwan, where outbursts of deadly violence are rare.

這起流血事件引起了台灣民眾的極大關注，在當地，致命的暴力事件非常罕見。

For the second day in a row, Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, and other senior officials sought to reassure residents that the government would thoroughly investigate the killings and look for lessons to prevent any similar attacks. The last similar case was in 2014, when a man went on a stabbing spree on a Taipei subway train, killing four people. He was executed in 2016.

The latest series of attacks began around 3:40 p.m. and ended a little over three hours later, according to a timeline described by Chang Jung-Hsin, the director-general of Taiwan’s National Police Agency, in a televised meeting. At the same meeting, Taiwan’s premier, Cho Jung-tai, suggested that answers were needed about why the attacker could continue his actions for so long after witnesses were already alarmed.

據台灣警政署署長張榮興在一個視訊會議上介紹的時間線顯示，這一系列襲擊始於下午3點40分左右，在三個多小時後結束。在同一次會議上，台灣行政院院長卓榮泰表示，有必要弄清楚在目擊者已經報警的情況下，襲擊者為何還能持續行動如此之久。

The police said the man set out from his hotel room and began by trying to set on fire parked vehicles. He went back to a small apartment he rented and tried to set fire to it, and then went to Taipei Main Station, pulling a small trolley holding improvised smoke grenades. He tossed the grenades near a busy concourse and entryways and attacked a man with a knife, after the man tried to stop his attack, the mayor of Taipei, Chiang Wan-an, told reporters.

警方表示，該男子從所住的旅館房間出發，首先試圖點燃停放的車輛。隨後他回到自己租住的一間小公寓，試圖縱火；接著前往台北車站，拖著一輛裝有自製煙霧彈的小推車。台北市長蔣萬安告訴記者，他在一處人流密集的連通道和出口附近投擲煙霧彈，並在一名男子試圖阻止其行兇後，用刀襲擊了該男子。

Police officers arrived to try to catch the attacker, but he escaped back to his hotel room, and then walked about half a mile to a branch of the Eslite bookstore in Zhongshan neighborhood, an area thronged by young Taiwanese, especially on a weekend evening. He had rented a hotel room a stone’s throw from the store.

警方趕到現場試圖抓捕襲擊者，但他逃回了自己的旅館房間，隨後步行近千米，前往位於中山區的一家誠品書店分店。該區域擠滿年輕人，尤其在週末夜晚。他租住的旅館房間距離該書店僅咫尺之遙。

He threw more smoke grenades at the crowd, which was growing increasingly alarmed. The attacker, dressed at this point in black shorts, shirt and cap, then stabbed a second man. Then he rushed upstairs in the bookstore and fatally stabbed another man on the fourth floor.

他又向恐慌情緒不斷加劇的人群投擲了更多煙霧彈。此時，身穿黑色短褲、襯衫、戴著帽子的襲擊者隨後刺傷了第二名男子。接著，他沖至書店樓上，在四樓將另一名男子刺死。

Moments later, the attacker climbed to the fifth floor of the building, left some clothes and equipment on the floor, and plunged to his death on the street below.

不久之後，襲擊者爬上大樓五樓，將部分衣物和裝備留在地上，然後一躍而下，墜亡於下方街道。

While officials stressed that they were still trying to understand the attacker’s motives, details of his life and final actions suggested that he led an isolated and increasingly troubled life.

官員們強調，他們仍在努力弄清襲擊者的動機，但其人生經歷和最後的行為細節表明，他過著一種孤立且日益備受困擾的生活。

He had fallen out of contact with his family for two years or more, and had also lost his job, the police said. Previously, he had been discharged from the Taiwanese military in 2021 for driving while drunk. Family members told the police investigators that he had been interested in weapons since childhood.

警方表示，他已與家人失去聯繫兩年或更長時間，並且失去了工作。此前，他曾因酒駕於2021年被台灣軍方開除。家屬向警方調查人員表示，他從小就對武器感興趣。

When he fled the train station, he left behind gasoline bottles, a tactical vest and a gas mask. At his small apartment, which he had tried to set on fire, investigators found more knives, five gasoline containers and a laptop computer that was burned. Inside the hotel room that the man had rented for his final three days, they found 23 primitive gasoline bombs, two tablet computers and more knives.

他在逃離車站時留下了汽油瓶、一件戰術背心和一個防毒面具。在他試圖縱火的小公寓裡，調查人員發現了更多的刀具、五個汽油容器以及一台被燒毀的筆記型電腦。在這名男子為生命最後三天租住的旅館房間內，警方發現了23枚簡易汽油炸彈、兩台平板電腦和更多的刀具。