Victims win partial damages in 2021 Incheon stabbing case over police negligence

Victims of the 2021 Incheon floor-noise stabbing incident have won a partial damages award in a lawsuit filed against the state over police officers' inadequate response.

According to Yonhap, the 13th Civil Division of the Incheon District Court, presided over by Judge Shin Jong-hwan, ruled partly in favor of the family of A, a woman in her 40s who was injured in the attack, in their damages suit against the state. The court ordered the negligent officers and the state to jointly pay the family 350 million won ($230,000). The ruling recognized only partial liability out of the more than 2 billion won the plaintiffs had sought, and directed each side to bear its own litigation costs.

Two officers who responded to the stabbing at a villa in Namdong-gu, Incheon, in November last year were indicted on charges of dereliction of duty and each sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for three years.

The officers failed to stop the attack or abandoned the scene as a man in his 50s living on the fourth floor slashed A, a third-floor resident, with a knife. A was stabbed in the neck and required brain surgery.

The legal team representing the victim, including attorney Kim Min-ho of law firm LKB Pyeongsan, issued a statement describing the ruling as one related to a case that had "dealt a decisive blow to public trust in police power," adding that "the court's stern warning to police authority carries significance."