(Incheon = Yonhap News) Reporter Choi Eun-ji = The crime of Choi Chung-rak (59), who injured eight citizens by swinging a weapon at a large commercial facility in broad daylight, was not an unexpected crime.
Just 34 days ago, he protested on the streets with a weapon, and two reports were filed at that time.
On the 9th of last month, Choi Chung-rak staged a one-person protest in front of a hospital in Gyeyang-gu. The reason was that they were dissatisfied with the treatment they received for skin diseases at the hospital.
During the protest, he suddenly took out a weapon from a shopping bag, punched a hole in a protest sign with phrases such as 'hospital lacks professionalism', and hung it on a tree.
During the nine-hour protest, he exposed his weapon four times. This hospital is located near a subway station and has a very high floating population.
Ultimately, a related report was filed with the police through the Safety Report Center at 10:03 a.m. on the same day.
At the time, Choi Chung-rak had 10 criminal records, including attempted murder, and was even wearing an electronic location tracking device (electronic anklet), but since there was no direct threat, only the weapon was recovered at the scene and no other action was taken.
The police assigned to the case investigated Choi Chung-rak as a suspect on the 6th, 27 days after receiving the report, after investigating the reporter and securing closed-circuit (CCTV) footage.
At the time of the investigation, Choi Choong-rak stated that he had been treated for alcoholism and drugs for 15 years, but no measures were taken, such as risk assessment or emergency hospitalization.
This is because he did not threaten an unspecified number of people with a weapon or roam the streets, and his mental illness and risk of self-harm or harm to others were not confirmed.
The Ministry of Justice's management and supervision system for those subject to electronic anklets also did not work properly.
Immediately after investigating Choi Choong-rak on the 6th, a week before the crime, the police notified the local probation office of this fact by wire.
However, the probation officer who confronted Choi Chung-rak on the morning of the crime could not pinpoint any unusual signs.
They moved to a nearby Sundae Gukbap restaurant around 11:55 and had a meal together. Choi Chung-rak came out of the house carrying a backpack containing a weapon and a blunt weapon.
His actions were planned. After taking the subway from Gyeyang-gu to Guwol-dong, Namdong-gu, I even submitted a leave of absence to the Korea National Open University, which I usually attended, and moved to the See&See building, a 5-minute walk away.
At 1:45 p.m., in the split second of taking the elevator from the first floor to the second floor, Choi Chung-rak took out a weapon from his backpack and secured it to both hands with white tape.
He went back and forth between the restaurant area on the second floor and the third floor, swinging a weapon at citizens he had never seen before, but after being arrested by the police, he claimed, "I had no intention of killing."
In the process, a 19-year-old woman who was eating with her companions was stabbed deeply in the chest and was taken to the hospital in cardiac arrest, but is still unconscious, and eight people, including her, were injured.
Even before the suspect's interrogation (warrant review) before arrest on the 16th, Choi Chung-rak claimed that the reason for the crime was, "It was because I had created a situation in which I had no choice but to fall off a cliff."
Meanwhile, the police are additionally investigating the specific motive and circumstances of Choi Chung-rak's crime on charges of attempted murder and possession of a weapon in a public place.
In addition, in the case of a protest with a weapon in Gyeyang-gu, we plan to review the disposition of new recruits after additional investigation.
