A man in his 50s who wounded eight people in a knife attack at a large commercial complex in Incheon received a suspended sentence when he first committed attempted murder years ago, records show. He went on to carry out two more attacks with knives, yet the heaviest sentence he received was four years in prison.
According to court rulings reviewed on the 15th, the suspect, identified by the surname A, 59, was arrested by police on charges of attempting to murder 10 people by swinging knives at them on the 13th at the see&see commercial building in Guwol-dong, Namdong District, Incheon. In July 2004, the jeonse home he was living in — a lease system in which tenants pay a large lump-sum deposit instead of monthly rent — was put up for auction, leaving him unable to recover his 9 million won deposit. In September that year he went to the real estate brokerage that had found him the home. He entered the office with a paring knife hidden in his sock, waited for another employee to leave for the day, approached the victim from behind and stabbed the victim in the shoulder and chest.
A was arrested and put on trial. The trial court noted that he had acted despite recognizing the risk of death, but sentenced him to five years in prison, citing that he was a first-time offender with no criminal record, that the crime was spur-of-the-moment and that he had expressed remorse. An appeals court then reduced the sentence to two years and six months, suspended for three years, pointing to a settlement he had reached with the victim despite the attempted murder.
A's offenses continued after his release. In 2007, he quarreled with a woman identified as B, with whom he was living, while the two were drinking. B attacked him first with a paring knife, and A took the knife and stabbed her in return. He was indicted along with B on charges of violating the Act on the Punishment of Violence (group assault and assault with a deadly weapon). The court sentenced A to 12 years and six months in prison, suspended for three years, taking into account that B had attacked first and that neither party wanted the other punished.
A later registered a marriage with B and then divorced her. In 2015, he was again put on trial on charges of attempting to murder her and was sentenced to four years in prison. He had asked B to get back together, and when she refused, he stabbed her repeatedly in the arm, hand and near the heart with a kitchen knife. Police who arrived at the scene struck his arm with a baton, but he tried to continue the attack, records show.
Put on trial again, A was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet for 10 years after his release, through Feb. 23, 2029. His recidivism risk assessment score was 14, rated "high." The court again factored into sentencing that he had confessed and expressed remorse. He submitted dozens of letters of apology to the court. Last month, he was also booked on charges of carrying a knife in a public place and was questioned on the 6th of this month at the Gyeyang Police Station in Incheon.
After serving his sentence and returning to society, A attacked 10 strangers at random with knives on the 13th at the commercial complex in Guwol-dong, Incheon, while wearing his electronic ankle monitor. Among the victims, a 19-year-old woman was taken to a hospital in cardiac arrest and underwent emergency surgery. Her heartbeat returned, but she has not regained consciousness. She is being treated in an intensive care unit on a ventilator.
Five other victims are hospitalized, and two with less severe injuries are receiving outpatient care. The remaining two were not injured.
In police questioning, A said he had been dissatisfied with a hospital where he had received treatment and resentful that the hospital's report to authorities had led to a police investigation. He said he committed the attack to create a news story that would draw public attention to his complaints. A claimed he had no intention to kill. But police applied attempted murder charges after considering that he had held knives in both hands, secured with tape, and the parts of the body where he stabbed the victims.
A hearing to review a warrant for his detention is scheduled to be held at the Incheon District Court either on the 15th or the 16th.