Police Plan to Request Arrest Warrant After Investigating for Mental Illness and Other Factors
A man in his 30s who wielded a weapon at strangers in a supermarket in Mia-dong, Gangbuk-gu, Seoul, killing one person, reportedly behaved bizarrely after the crime by calmly smoking and even voluntarily reporting himself to the police.
According to Yonhap News on April 23, citing the Seoul Gangbuk Police Station, at around 6:20 p.m. the previous day, a man identified as A committed a stabbing rampage at a supermarket near Mia Station in Gangbuk-gu, Seoul. After the attack, he was seen calmly smoking a cigarette in a nearby alley and voluntarily reporting himself to the police.
On that day, A attacked strangers with a weapon, resulting in one death and one injury. A woman in her 60s who had come to shop was stabbed and taken to the hospital in cardiac arrest, but ultimately died. Another victim, a supermarket employee in his 40s, is receiving treatment at the hospital and is reported to be out of life-threatening danger.
Immediately before the crime, A took a bottle of soju displayed inside the supermarket and drank it. He then unwrapped a weapon that was in the store and attacked the victims in succession. Right after the crime, he placed the weapon he had used among piles of snacks displayed in front of the store and moved to a nearby alley.
Footage from a nearby closed-circuit (CC) TV released to the public shows A walking down an alley, calmly smoking a cigarette. He was also captured wandering the streets while talking on the phone with someone. It was reported that he called 112 himself using his mobile phone to voluntarily report the crime.
At the time of the crime, A was wearing a patient gown and was found to have been hospitalized at a nearby orthopedic clinic. He is said to have given inconsistent statements regarding his motive for the crime and other details.
A police official stated, "We are investigating whether A has a mental illness and are also considering a drug test." The police plan to request an arrest warrant for A as soon as the investigation is completed.
Meanwhile, a series of so-called "indiscriminate crimes" involving random stabbing attacks without motive have been occurring in busy areas. In 2023, there were shocking stabbing rampages near Sillim Station in Gwanak-gu, Seoul, and Seohyeon Station in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. In September last year, a high school girl in Suncheon, South Jeolla Province, was fatally stabbed by a stranger on a main road.
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