[Anchor]
Jang Yoon-gi is also accused of sexually assaulting a foreign woman shortly before murdering a high school girl. However, the Gwangsan Police Station investigated the two crimes committed by Jang separately at the time. The police special investigation team is looking into whether the Gwangsan Police leadership, fearing disciplinary action, intentionally separated the cases to obscure any connection to a related crime.
Reporter An Huijae has the story.
[Reporter]
On May 3, two days before Jang Yoon-gi murdered the high school girl, a report was filed with 112 by a Vietnamese woman, identified as A.
She reported that Jang, who worked with her at a part-time job, appeared to be stalking her.
[Police Official (SBS 'Unanswered Questions'): 'A Korean man seems to be following me.' (Jang) did not answer the phone, so we sent a warning message via text.]
The following day, A filed a complaint alleging that she had been sexually assaulted by Jang. The case, initially filed at the Chilgok Police Station in North Gyeongsang Province, was transferred to the Gwangsan Police Station in Gwangju after Jang was arrested.
However, case A was referred to the prosecution separately, about a week after the high school girl murder case had already been sent.
The Gwangsan Police Station assigned case A to the Women and Youth Division rather than the Detective Division, which was in charge of the main Jang Yoon-gi investigation, leading to a separate probe.
The police special investigation team is verifying whether there was an ulterior motive behind this decision-making process.
While separating cases is a standard procedure, it is highly unusual not to assign case A to the Detective Division, as most major violent crimes are investigated collectively.
The former head of the investigation team at Gwangsan Police Station, who was referred to the prosecution under detention yesterday (July 15), reportedly stated during recent questioning that "I intended to investigate case A together, but it was separated for unknown reasons."
[Kim Young-sik / Professor of Police Administration, Soonchunhyang University: Since it is the same suspect, it is rational to merge the cases and handle them in one department. It was either a lapse in judgment or there was another motive.]
The special investigation team has requested a pre-trial detention warrant for the former head of the Detective Division, Superintendent Park, who was the superior of the investigation team leader at the time.
Allegations suggest that despite internal opinions from the investigation team, Park instructed them to apply the charge of general murder, which carries a lighter sentence than the charge of rape-murder, to Jang. Park reportedly denied the charges, claiming he was not the one who led the decision to apply the murder charge.
(Video reporting: Joo Yong-jin | Video editing: Choi Hye-ran)
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