Meeting Held to Promote Merged Investigations Just Two Weeks Before Case... Why?

[Anchor]

It has been confirmed that officials from the National Police Agency and the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency gathered at the Gwangsan Police Station for a meeting just two weeks before Jang Yoon-gi, the murderer of a high school girl, was arrested. The gathering was held to discuss the police leadership's directives for a stern response to relationship-based crimes such as stalking, and a few days later, an official directive was issued instructing active merged investigations for relationship-based crimes.

Reporter An Huijae has the details.

[Reporter]

The National Police Agency's task force team on relationship-based crimes visited the Gwangsan Police Station in Gwangju on April 21.

This was about a month after President Lee Jae-myung publicly rebuked the police over their poor response to the stalking murder case in Namyangju.

[President Lee Jae-myung (last March): (The police's) complacent response might have failed to prevent a horrific crime.]

At the meeting, which brought together some 20 people including high-ranking officials from the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency and working-level staff from the Gwangsan Police Station, comprehensive measures for relationship-based crimes promoted by the National Police Agency to address the aftermath of the Namyangju stalking murder case were put on the table.

An attendee of the meeting explained in a phone call with SBS that "it was an occasion to re-emphasize the policy of responding strictly to relationship-based crimes such as stalking and dating violence."

Six days after the meeting, specific guidelines from the National Office of Investigation under the National Police Agency were also dispatched to the Gwangsan Police Station.

The official document noted the risks of repeated relationship-based crimes and repeatedly emphasized the "activation of merged investigations."

Clear criteria were also presented stating that cases should be merged into the police station and investigation team that first received the complaint.

Only a week later, Jang Yoon-gi, the murderer of the high school girl, was arrested, but the police chose separate investigations instead of a merger, applying the charge of simple murder rather than rape and murder.

This choice directly contradicted the prior instructions of the police leadership. The police special investigation team suspects that the leadership of the Gwangsan Police Station intentionally attempted to sever the connection between the high school girl murder case and the previous relationship-based crime targeting a Vietnamese woman.

Amidst mounting, high-intensity pressure following the Namyangju stalking murder case, investigators suspect that the police may have been concerned about highlighting their failure to even book Jang Yoon-gi at the time of the previous stalking crime report.

The police special investigation team has secured records of the National Police Agency TF's meeting and official documents to analyze their connection to the shoddy investigation into the Jang Yoon-gi case.

(Camera: Bae Moon-san | Video Editing: Kim Yoon-sung | Design: Cho Su-in, Hwang Se-yeon | Data provided by the office of People Power Party lawmaker Park Soo-min)

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