Police Probe Why 'Jang Yoon-gi Case' Was Investigated Separately

[Anchor]

The police special investigation team is looking into why the Gwangsan Police Station investigated the murder of a high school girl separately from other sexual assault charges already pending against Jang Yoon-gi. The special investigation team suspects that the leadership may have intentionally assigned the cases separately to avoid criticism and disciplinary action by not linking them to the sexual assault charges.

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.

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, the case involving A was referred to the prosecution separately, about a week after the high school girl murder case had already been sent over.

Instead of assigning the case to the detective division, which was in charge of the investigation into Jang's murder case, the Gwangsan Police Station separated A's case and assigned it to the Women and Youth Affairs Division for a separate investigation.

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 rare not to assign A's case to the detective division, as most major violent crimes are investigated in an integrated manner.

The former head of the investigation team at the Gwangsan Police Station, who was referred to the prosecution under detention on July 15, reportedly stated during recent questioning that he had intended to investigate A's case together with the murder case, but it was separated for reasons unknown to him.

[Kim Young-sik / Professor of Police Administration, Soonchunhyang University: Since it is the same suspect, it is reasonable to consolidate the cases and handle them in one department. It is either a lapse in judgment or there was some other intention.]

The special investigation team has requested a pre-trial detention warrant for Superintendent Park, the former head of the detective division and the superior of the investigation team leader at the time.

It is alleged that Park instructed the investigation team to apply the charge of general murder, which carries a lighter sentence than rape-murder, despite internal opinions within the team. Park reportedly denied the allegations, 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)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.