Left a child on the mat unattended, 5-year-old boy in Taekwondo dojang suffers cardiac arrest... Director deletes CCTV footage

Director places child on mat and leaves unattended... Emergency arrest
Victim child unconscious, receiving treatment in ICU

A 5-year-old boy was found in cardiac arrest at a Taekwondo gym in Yangju-si, Gyeonggi Province, prompting a police investigation.

According to Yonhap News on the 13th, at around 7:40 p.m. the previous day, police and fire authorities received a report from a clinic located in the same building as a Taekwondo gym in Deokgye-dong, Yangju-si, Gyeonggi Province, stating that "a 5-year-old boy is not breathing." When the fire authorities arrived at the scene, boy A was in cardiac arrest and was transported to the hospital while receiving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). A has not regained consciousness and is currently receiving treatment in the intensive care unit.

Ambulance. The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

The police confirmed circumstances indicating that B, a man in his 30s and the director of the Taekwondo gym, had recklessly neglected boy A and urgently arrested B at the scene. The Women and Juvenile Investigation Unit of the Northern Gyeonggi Police Agency reported that B placed boy A upside down between mats that had been rolled up and stood upright, leaving him there for about 10 to 20 minutes. After boy A stopped breathing, B took him to the clinic located in the same building as the Taekwondo gym.

B attempted to destroy evidence by deleting closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage capturing the incident. It was revealed by the police that after the fire authorities transported boy A to the hospital, B deleted the Taekwondo gym’s CCTV footage containing the crime scene. The Taekwondo gym operated a class exclusively for kindergarten children, and other children were reportedly attending the class at the time of A’s accident.

During the police investigation, B reportedly stated, "I did it as a joke." The police have booked B on charges of child abuse causing serious injury under the Special Act on the Punishment of Child Abuse Crimes and plan to apply for an arrest warrant while investigating the detailed circumstances of the case.