CCTV footage from near the accident scene [Yonhap]
CCTV footage from near the accident scene [Yonhap]

The family of a woman in her 60s who was killed by a patrol car dispatched to help her is demanding that the officer behind the wheel face murder charges.

Officer A, attached to a district unit under the Incheon Michuhol Police Station, was booked without detention and is under investigation on charges of causing death through a traffic accident after running over a woman identified as B with a patrol car at around 12:45 a.m. on July 3 on a side street in Sungui-dong, Michuhol-gu.

Officer A had responded to a report that a person was lying in the road, arriving at the scene with a senior officer from the same unit — only to fatally strike B, the very person they had been called to help. Officer A told police he had failed to see B lying on the road.

According to Yonhap on Monday, however, B's family cited witness accounts in disputing how the officer responded after the initial impact. They said the patrol car ran over B once, then remained stationary for about 10 seconds even after the officer felt the vehicle jolt from the impact.

The family further claims that Officer A did not immediately get out to help B, but instead moved the vehicle forward and ran over her a second time. He then traveled an additional 15 meters before stopping — only after officers in a following patrol car shouted at him.

The family argues that Officer A's continued driving after becoming aware that a person was trapped beneath the vehicle constitutes murder with "dolus eventualis" — intent through reckless indifference. They called for him to be charged with murder or with hit-and-run causing death under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, and for the case to be treated as a serious crime.

"The 112 emergency call records are crucial to understanding how the accident unfolded, but police have been dragging their feet and refusing to hand over the materials," B's family said. "We have filed a criminal evidence preservation request with the court for the 112 dispatch center records, and a freeze on those materials has already been completed."

A police official said investigators are awaiting the results of an autopsy and an on-site analysis by the Korea Road Traffic Authority. "Once those results are in, we plan to examine whether Officer A could actually have seen B, based on the event data recorder analysis, dashcam footage and other evidence," the official said.


betterj@heraldcorp.com