The family of a man killed by a friend at an apartment in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, has accused police of a slow initial response, while police have rebuffed the claims.
According to police Tuesday, the Gyeongsan Police Station is investigating a man in his 20s, identified only as A, on murder charges.
A is accused of stabbing his friend, identified as B, dozens of times with a bladed weapon at his apartment in Hayang-eup, Gyeongsan, at around 4 a.m. on Friday. A had been drinking with B before turning violent, biting the victim's face as B pleaded with him to stop. During the attack, A called another friend and laughed, saying "Aren't I cute?" and "Mwahaha."
In a statement distributed to media Monday, B's family said A encountered a police patrol car while wandering the streets immediately after the killing, but officers failed to detain him on the spot. A was naked, covered in blood and visibly tattooed at the time, yet police took no action despite seeing him, the family said.
The family said A returned to the scene about an hour later, where friends who had rushed to help B physically restrained him after a struggle. Police arrived belatedly and took A into custody at around 5:20 a.m., the family said, adding that without the friends holding him down, there was a risk of further harm or destruction of evidence.
The family also alleged that police failed to apply a corpse mutilation charge due to a shoddy investigation, pointing to injuries to the victim's legs and abdomen as evidence that A had attempted to desecrate the body. The family subsequently filed a complaint with police requesting that a corpse mutilation charge be added to the murder charge against A.
Police pushed back, saying officers from the B district unit who first responded encountered the suspect on the street at 4:25 a.m., recognized him as connected to the incident because he was naked and covered in blood, and ordered him to stop — but he fled. The officers then tracked him by following a trail of blood, police said.
Officers from the C district unit, responding to a second report of a murder, arrived at the apartment at around 4:46 a.m. and took an elevator up at around 4:50 a.m., making the arrest at 4:57 a.m., police added. The B unit officers, following the blood trail, confirmed the scene was inside the apartment building and began searching from the ground floor. A second report stating that a victim had died on an upper floor came in at around 4:35 a.m., after which they proceeded to the scene, police explained.
Police dismissed the allegation that they had overlooked a corpse mutilation charge, saying call records and other evidence showed the victim was alive until at least 4:05 a.m. When factoring in the time A spent traveling to a convenience store, there was no window for him to have mutilated the body, police said.
The North Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency has decided to release A's personal information to the public on Thursday.
paq@heraldcorp.com
