Two Weeks Before Chang Yoon-ki's Arrest, Meeting Held to Actively Consolidate Investigations

[Anchor]

We continue with our exclusive coverage regarding the Chang Yoon-ki case. It has been confirmed that two weeks before the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station arrested Chang Yoon-ki, the high school girl murder suspect, officials from the National Police Agency and the Gwangju Provincial Police Agency gathered at the Gwangsan station for a meeting. At the gathering, guidelines from police leadership emphasizing a stern response to relational crimes such as stalking were discussed. Just a few days later, an official directive from the National Police Agency instructing police to actively consolidate relational crimes was even sent down, but the way the Gwangsan station handled the actual case turned out quite differently.

This is an exclusive report by Reporter An Huijae.

[Reporter]

The National Police Agency task force on relational crimes visited the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station on April 21.

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

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

At the meeting, which brought together some 20 officials including senior officers from the Gwangju Provincial Police Agency and working-level staff from the Gwangsan station, comprehensive countermeasures for relational crimes pushed by the National Police Agency to handle the aftermath of the Namyangju stalking murder 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 relational crimes such as stalking and dating violence."

Six days after the seminar, specific guidelines from the National Police Headquarters were also issued to the Gwangsan station.

The official document mentioned the dangers of repetitive relational crimes and repeatedly stressed "activating consolidated investigations."

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

And just a week later, high school girl murder suspect Chang Yoon-ki was arrested, but the police chose separate investigations instead of consolidation, applying the charge of simple murder rather than rape-murder.

This was a choice that directly contradicted the previous guidelines from police leadership. The police special investigation team suspects that the Gwangsan station leadership intentionally tried to sever the connection between the high school girl murder case and a previous relational crime targeting a Vietnamese woman.

Given that high-intensity pressure had been coming down day after day following the Namyangju stalking murder case, investigators suspect the police worried that it would come to light that they had not even booked Chang Yoon-ki at the time of the previous stalking crime report.

The police special investigation team has secured records of the National Police Agency TF's seminar and official documents from that time, analyzing their connection to the shoddy investigation of the Chang Yoon-ki case.

(Photo: Bae Moon-san | Video Editing: Kim Yun-seong | Design: Cho Su-in, Hwang Se-yeon | Photo courtesy of Representative Park Soo-min's office of the People Power Party)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.