[Anchor]

An arrest warrant has been requested for a man in his 30s who is a public official, accused of murdering his wife during divorce proceedings in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province. Despite the victim pressing a police-provided smartwatch, she could not avoid the fatal attack, prompting calls for alternative measures.

Reporter Bae Seong-jae has the details.

[Reporter]

At 7:17, an emergency report via smartwatch signaling a crisis was received by the police from a villa in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province.

Because location tracking was available, police arrived at the scene within three minutes, but the perpetrator had already fled.

According to CCTV footage, the police patrol car arrived just one minute after the suspect, a man in his 30s and a public official identified as A who slashed his wife with a weapon during divorce proceedings, fled the scene on a motorcycle.

The victim ultimately died, and A was apprehended four hours and a half after fleeing.

This is not the first time that a smartwatch report has failed to prevent a gruesome relational violent crime.

A woman in her 20s murdered by Kim Hoon in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, in March, and a woman in her 60s murdered by her ex-partner in Seongnam two months ago had both reported through police-provided smartwatches, yet could not prevent the tragic deaths.

Police arrived at the scenes 8 minutes and 3 minutes after receiving the reports, respectively, but it was already after the incidents had taken place.

This is why critics point out that smartwatches are rendered useless in situations where the perpetrator has already approached and the danger is realized.

While they may help in prompt emergency measures or apprehending criminals, they fail to prevent the crimes themselves.

[Park Mi-rang / Professor of Police Science, Hannam University: Since we cannot predict and dispatch beforehand, I think it is an inevitable limitation under the current system. We need to ponder whether there are institutional areas that need further reinforcement, such as police manuals or criteria for assessing risk.]

Police have requested an arrest warrant for A.

Considering that the couple's young children were present at the crime scene, police explained that they applied child abuse charges alongside the murder charge, determining that emotional abuse had also taken place.

(Video Editing: Choi Jin-hwa)