"Man in Black Hoodie Running Around with a Weapon"... Plainclothes Police Officer Arrests Innocent Middle School Student

Injury Three Weeks Before Transfer During Suppression Process
Parents "Bloodied Child Not Taken to Hospital"
Police "Accident Occurred in Difficult Situation"

A middle school student mistaken for carrying a weapon was injured due to excessive police restraint.

According to Yonhap News and the police on the 6th, a 112 emergency call was received around 10 p.m. the previous day reporting, "A man wearing a black hoodie is running around with a knife near Buyongcheon in Geum-o-dong, Uijeongbu-si." The police immediately mobilized all personnel, including the nearby district police station and on-duty detectives, to track the suspect based on closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage.

Plainclothes detectives quickly identified and apprehended a middle school student, A, wearing a black hoodie and earphones running along the stream. During the restraint, when several detectives suddenly rushed at him, A got scared and ran away. The detectives thought he was fleeing and chased after him. In this situation, A fell while running and was injured, sustaining wounds to his head, back, arms, and legs during the restraint process.

A claimed to have been injured during the suppression process and posted a photo [Photo by online community 'BobaeDream']

The problem was that upon apprehension, it was confirmed that A was not carrying any weapon. At the time of the report, he was running along the stream for exercise as usual and had briefly watched children playing soccer in a nearby park. It is understood that these children found it suspicious when A watched them and then resumed running, leading them to report to the police. Furthermore, citizens who witnessed the restraint process posted photos and videos titled "Weapon-wielding maniac in Geum-o-dong, Uijeongbu-si" on social networking services (SNS).

A’s parents expressed their grievance in a phone call with Yonhap News, saying, "They handcuffed our bloodied child and detained him at the police station without taking him to the hospital." They added, "The plainclothes police officers did not inform us of their affiliation, identity, or the Miranda rights and violently restrained the child." They continued, "Our child goes to the stream every day to exercise, wearing a hoodie and earphones to sweat more. The police took no action, and we had to take him to the hospital ourselves, where he was diagnosed with injuries requiring about three weeks of recovery."

Regarding this, a police official explained, "If you check the CCTV footage, the situation was somewhat understandable as the children playing soccer ran away upon seeing A. When the detectives tried to show their police ID for questioning, A ran away and fell." The official added, "It was a difficult situation where one side was trying to restrain him while the other was trying to escape, resulting in the accident." They also said, "We plan to meet A’s parents to explain the situation and have a conversation."

Meanwhile, on the 5th, similar reports of suspicious individuals carrying weapons wandering the streets were received in Jinju and Sacheon, Gyeongnam Province, prompting the city to send disaster safety text messages. However, both cases turned out to be false alarms.

In Jinju, a man carrying a weapon was working at a nearby construction site and carried a knife that was not properly sheathed. In Sacheon, a man in his 60s was reported by a citizen after being seen carrying a knife he had picked up from a pile of trash to reuse at home.