"You Made Eye Contact": Suwon Gang Members Assault Pedestrian, Leaving Him Unconscious with a Fractured Jaw

Former members of a criminal organization in the Suwon, Gyeonggi Province area have received suspended prison sentences in their first trial for collectively assaulting a pedestrian simply because they made eye contact on the street.

The Suwon District Court Criminal Division 14 sentenced six individuals, including a person identified as A, to suspended prison terms ranging from one to two years, with three years of probation, on charges including violations of the Act on the Punishment of Violent Acts.

The court sentenced A, who played a leading role in the assault, to two years in prison suspended for three years, and B to one year and six months in prison suspended for three years.

The remaining four individuals, including one simple participant and three others identified as members of the same criminal organization during the investigation, were each sentenced to one year in prison suspended for three years.

A and two others were charged with dragging a man in his 20s into a building after making eye contact while smoking on a road in front of a building in Gwonseon-gu, Suwon, at approximately 7:30 a.m. on June 13, 2024, and then brutally beating him with their fists and feet.

The victim in his 20s lost consciousness and sustained serious injuries, including a fracture of the right maxilla, requiring six weeks of medical treatment.

Five of the defendants, including A and B, were found to have joined and operated as active members of the Suwon C gang, a criminal organization, between January 2022 and April 2023.

The court stated, "Violent criminal organizations pose a serious threat to the maintenance of social order and create anxiety among law-abiding citizens, so their culpability is not light," adding, "The degree of injury is also severe, as they dragged the victim to a secluded area to assault him."

The court further explained, "However, we took into account in the sentencing that the defendants were merely low-level members within the criminal organization, that they have all since withdrawn from the group and pledged to live diligently in their daily lives, and that they have reached an amicable settlement with the victim, who does not wish for them to be punished."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.