Man in Hospital Gown Wields Weapon in Public… Will Threshold for Involuntary Commitment Be Lowered?

[Anchor]

Yesterday (Nov. 5), a man wearing a hospital gown went on a weapon-wielding rampage in the middle of downtown Seoul. In response to such violent crimes driven by auditory and visual hallucinations, the government plans to announce countermeasures as early as this month.

For more, here is reporter Park Jaehyeon.

[Reporter]

In front of a general hospital in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, at 11:30 a.m. yesterday.

A man wearing a hospital gown brandishes a weapon and threatens citizens.

No one was injured, and the man, after being arrested by police, reportedly stated that he "heard voices."

On October 28, a station worker in his 30s who indiscriminately slashed a coworker with a weapon at Wondang Station on Subway Line 3 was sent to the prosecutors' office today while in custody.

[Cho / Suspect in Wondang Station Attempted Murder (Oct. 30): (Did you plan the crime in advance?) ...... (Do you have anything to say to the victim?) ......]

From the Choi Choong-rak case in Guwol-dong, Incheon, to the stabbing of a professor at Severance Hospital, motiveless crimes caused by mental illness have occurred consecutively of late.

As public anxiety grows, the government plans to announce measures to improve the hospitalization system for mental illness patients as early as this month to prevent such incidents.

Discussions are underway on ways to relax the conditions for non-consensual inpatient treatment for mental illness patients who have committed a crime once and pose a high risk of reoffending.

Along this process, measures to alleviate the burden of criminal liability on medical staff and police are also being jointly reviewed.

Experts emphasize that for severe mental illness accompanied by violence, the state must take responsibility for treatment through measures such as a judicial hospitalization system where courts intervene or a mandatory outpatient treatment order system.

[Sung Myung-je / Psychiatrist (Former Researcher at the National Forensic Hospital Forensic Psychiatry Research Institute): We must quickly improve the system where family members bear unlimited responsibility simply because they are designated as duty-of-protection obligors, and especially establish a system where the state takes responsibility for law-breaking mental patients.]

They also advised that mental health support should be strengthened by directly visiting vulnerable groups for diagnosis, and emergency hospital beds in local communities should be expanded.

(Video by Lim Yeojin, Design by Yeji)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.