Two Weeks After Meeting to Promote Joint Investigations, Separate Probes Conducted

[Anchor]

The fact that Jang Yoon-gi was investigated separately for a sexual assault case and a high school girl murder case has become the focal point of allegations that the police attempted to cover up and minimize the case. Just before Jang committed the crimes, the National Police Agency, the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency, and the Gwangsan Police Station had already held a meeting to prevent relationship-based crimes, and the National Investigation Headquarters had issued an official directive to actively conduct joint investigations. Yet, the question of why these two cases were not combined and instead investigated separately must be clearly uncovered.

Reporter An Huijae has more.

[Reporter]

The National Police Agency's Task Force 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.

At the meeting, which brought together some 20 officials including senior officers from the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency and working-level staff from the Gwangsan Police Station, comprehensive countermeasures for relationship-based crimes being promoted by the National Police Agency to address the fallout from the Namyangju stalking murder were placed 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 Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency were also handed down to the Gwangsan Police Station.

The official document mentioned the dangers of repetitive relationship-based crimes and repeatedly emphasized the "activation of joint investigations."

Clear criteria were also presented stating that investigations should be consolidated under the police station and investigation team that first received the case.

Just a week later, high school girl murder suspect Jang Yoon-gi was arrested, but the police instead chose to conduct separate investigations rather than consolidating them, applying simple murder charges rather than rape and murder.

This choice directly contradicted the prior guidelines from the police leadership. The police special investigation unit believes that the leadership at the Gwangsan Police Station intentionally sought to sever the connection between the high school girl murder case and the previous relationship-based crime targeting a Vietnamese woman.

Amidst intensive pressure following the Namyangju stalking murder case, authorities suspect the police may have been worried that the fact they failed to even book Jang Yoon-gi when the previous stalking crime was reported would be brought to light.

The police special investigation unit has secured the meeting records and official documents from the National Police Agency TF at the time and is analyzing their connection to the shoddy investigation into the Jang Yoon-gi case.

(Camera: Bae Moon-san | Video Editing: Kim Yoon-sung | Design: Cho Soo-in, Hwang Se-yeon | Data provided by the office of People Power Party lawmaker Park Soo-min)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.