With 10 Criminal Records Including Attempted Murder, Yet Deemed "Not High-Risk Enough"

[Anchor]

Choi Choong-rak, who was wearing an electronic ankle monitor, had a criminal record of over 10 offenses, including two counts of attempted murder. Recently, he was even booked for carrying a weapon in a public place. However, it has been confirmed that the electronic monitoring management grade assigned to Choi by the Ministry of Justice was not in the high-risk group.

Reporter Lee Se-hyeon has the exclusive report.

[Reporter]

Choi Choong-rak, the suspect in the Incheon weapon rampage case, wielded a weapon against a real estate agent in 2004, and against his ex-common-law wife whom he was living with after a divorce in 2007. In 2015, he stabbed an ex-wife who refused to reconcile, serving a four-year prison term for attempted murder, accumulating a criminal record of more than 10 offenses.

Due to the risk of reoffending, he became a subject of the Ministry of Justice's probation wearing an electronic ankle monitor following his release from prison in 2019. According to an SBS investigation, it was confirmed that he was placed in the "intensive" grade, which is the lower tier among the Ministry of Justice's four-tier electronic monitoring management grades.

Recently, Choi held a one-person protest for two months harboring grievances against a hospital where he received athlete's foot treatment, and was booked on October 4 for carrying a weapon in a public place.

The Ministry of Justice did not upgrade his management grade even after being notified by the police of his booking two days later.

However, it was reported that a probation officer had lunch with Choi just before his weapon rampage on October 13, and only gave a verbal instruction that he "must not carry a weapon" without checking whether he was actually carrying one.

In response to an inquiry from SBS regarding whether this was a passive response, an official from the Ministry of Justice explained, "The recent weapon possession incident did not involve wielding a weapon against a person," adding, "That level does not qualify for the high-risk grade among electronic monitoring subjects."

The official also added, "We do not think that judgment was wrong."

Management grades are determined by evaluating criminal records and other factors based on a risk assessment tool for reoffending. Controversy is expected as Choi was deemed not to fall into the high-risk group.

[Kim Dong-a / Member of the Judiciary Committee, Democratic Party of Korea : The Ministry of Justice must comprehensively overhaul its electronic monitoring system. In addition, it should increase the insufficient electronic monitoring personnel and exercise special management over subjects with a high risk of reoffending.]

The Ministry of Justice also explained, "We were preparing additional procedures to verify whether weapons are possessed in the future."

(Video Editing: Kim Yoon-sung, Design: Kim Han-gil, Zegal Chan)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.