Tracking the Suspect's Movements Through CCTV Analysis
Cha Cheolnam, the suspect in the Siheung assault case, was urgently arrested by the police on the 19th and was transferred to the Siheung Police Station in Gyeonggi Province. Photo by Yonhap News
Cha Cheolnam, age 57, the suspect in the stabbing incident in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province, which resulted in four casualties, was urgently arrested by the police. The police tracked the route of the bicycle Cha used to escape and apprehended him approximately 10 hours after the initial report was received.
According to the police, on May 17, Cha is suspected of killing two Chinese-Korean brothers in their 50s, identified as A and B, with a blunt weapon. The murders occurred at Cha's own residence and at the victim's residence in the Jeongwang-dong area of Siheung. During police questioning, Cha reportedly stated that he committed the crimes because he had lent the brothers approximately 30 million won since 2013, and they had not repaid him.
Two days later, at approximately 9:34 a.m. on May 19, Cha attacked a woman in her 60s, identified as C, who was the owner of a convenience store near his home, with a knife. On the same day, at around 1:21 p.m., he is also suspected of attacking the owner of his multi-family residence, identified as D, a man in his 70s, with a knife at a sports park located about 1.3 kilometers from the convenience store. The police determined that, in each case, Cha made statements to the victims such as "You insulted me" and "You looked down on me" before committing the attacks.
After the crimes, Cha fled the scene by stealing a bicycle with a basket that was parked on the street. The police focused on this bicycle using the convenience store's CCTV footage and traced its route through footage from the city's monitoring center. During this process, they identified Cha, and discovered the bodies of the two men in their 50s at his residence and a nearby house.
The police established an investigation headquarters and deployed a total of 590 personnel, including the detective task force and riot police, to conduct the search. At around 2:03 p.m., they located the spot where the bicycle had been abandoned, which was a multi-family residential area approximately 7.5 kilometers from the second crime scene and about 5 kilometers from Cha's residence.
Subsequently, the police deployed 198 officers within several hundred meters of the location where the bicycle was found to conduct checkpoints and searches. At 6:28 p.m., they distributed wanted posters and shifted to a public investigation. On the same day, at 7:24 p.m., the police urgently arrested Cha on a roadside near Siwaho, approximately 300 to 400 meters from where the bicycle had been abandoned.
A police official stated, "Precisely tracking the bicycle's movements through the monitoring center's CCTV analysis was decisive," and added, "After locating him, we were able to quickly apprehend him by concentrating police resources."
On May 20, the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency applied for an arrest warrant for Cha on charges of murder and attempted murder. The police are continuing to investigate Cha's motives and the specific details of the crimes, and plan to conduct further questioning following the issuance of the arrest warrant.
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