▲ Jang Yoon-gi
It has been confirmed that officials from the National Police Agency and the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency gathered at the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station to discuss response measures for relational crimes just two weeks before Jang Yoon-gi murdered a high school girl.
Circumstances also emerged indicating that specific guidelines from the National Office of Investigation were issued demanding a "consolidated investigation of relational crimes."
According to official documents obtained by SBS through the office of People Power Party Representative Park Soo-min, the National Police Agency's Relational Crime Task Force visited the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station on the afternoon of April 21 to conduct an on-site inspection and a meeting.
It was found that the meeting was attended by nine officials from the Gwangju Police Agency in charge of relational crimes such as dating violence and stalking, along with a dozen working-level personnel from the Gwangsan Police Station.
The meeting was arranged to "overhaul the overall response system" as repercussions grew following the so-called "Namyangju stalking murder" incident, which brought police mismanagement of relational crimes under fire and prompted President Lee Jae-myung to directly order improvement measures. Attendees told SBS that it was an occasion to "re-emphasize the high-intensity follow-up measures pursued by the National Police Agency."
Following the Namyangju stalking murder case, the Gwangju Police Agency received a total of four official guidelines regarding relational crimes from the National Police Agency and distributed them to all police stations within its jurisdiction, including the Gwangsan Police Station. In particular, official documents from the National Office of Investigation dated April 24 and 27, issued after the meeting, contained instructions to strengthen response systems, such as conducting consolidated investigations when relational crimes occur.
The instructions stated, "In cases of relational crimes, considering the characteristics of recurring incidents and accumulating risks, conduct consolidated investigations and strengthen the incident response system by vitalizing investigations based on diagnoses of past history."
The National Office of Investigation specified in the document, "If additional relational crimes involving the same related party currently under investigation or pre-book investigation occur, comprehensively investigate the connection between the cases, the circumstances of the additional crime, and habitual tendencies."
Specifically, it presented a criterion that when a relational crime occurs, the police station and investigative team that first received the case should merge and handle the investigation. It also stipulated that even if cases do not meet the criteria for consolidation, previous reports and counseling histories should be comprehensively diagnosed and reflected throughout the entire investigative process.
Shortly thereafter, on May 5, Jang Yoon-gi—who is accused of stalking and sexually assaulting a foreign woman and murdering a high school girl—was apprehended by the investigative team at the Gwangsan Police Station.
The police special investigation team probing allegations of investigative misconduct by Jang Yoon-gi is focusing on the overall situation and timing surrounding the period when these official documents were exchanged and the meeting took place.
Deeming that the continuous atmosphere within and outside the organization, including police leadership, emphasizing a strict response to relational crimes may have influenced the application of general murder charges rather than rape-murder charges to Jang Yoon-gi, they have secured and begun analyzing all related official documents.
The police special investigation team strongly suspects that the leadership of the Gwangsan Police Station, upon receiving reports that Jang Yoon-gi committed a sexual crime against a foreign woman on top of murdering a high school girl, intentionally sought to sever the connection to relational crimes to evade accountability and disciplinary action.
Representative Park emphasized, "The National Police Agency directly visited the Gwangsan Police Station just two weeks before the Jang Yoon-gi incident and strongly urged them to properly respond to relational crimes. Yet immediately afterward, a murder intertwined with stalking and sexual crimes broke out within their jurisdiction."
He added, "It must be thoroughly investigated whether the leadership, fearful of reprimand from the headquarters, downplayed the case to a general murder unrelated to stalking to avoid disciplinary action."
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