Attempted murder charges applied
A contractor employee who went on a knife rampage at an LG Electronics research complex in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, injuring two people, has been sent to prosecutors in custody.
The Gangseo Police Precinct said Friday it had forwarded the case of a man in his 60s, identified by his surname Jeong, to prosecutors on attempted murder charges.
Jeong is accused of attacking two LG Electronics employees — a man in his 50s and another in his 40s — with a knife inside a building at the company's research complex in Magok-dong, Gangseo-gu, on the morning of May 27.
Jeong fled the scene immediately after the attack but was arrested the same day at Digital Media City station in Mapo-gu.
Police said the investigation found he had used a 23-centimeter hiking knife. The two victims were transported to a hospital by firefighters who responded to the scene and are not in life-threatening condition.
During police questioning, Jeong reportedly said he carried out the attack in a fit of rage after being dismissed, adding that the victims had spoken to him carelessly and looked down on him.
Appearing at Seoul Southern District Court on May 29 for a pretrial detention hearing, Jeong said he "could not contain his anger" over the dismissal notice and that he believed "there is a problem with LG Electronics' contractor management system."
Police had initially applied separate charges — attempted murder and aggravated assault — to the two incidents based on the circumstances of each attack. During the investigation, however, they determined that Jeong had intended to kill both victims and forwarded the case to prosecutors on attempted murder charges alone, dropping the aggravated assault count.
"We concluded that the suspect carried out the attack with the intent to kill both victims," a police official said.
newday@heraldcorp.com
