Calls for Arrest of Police Investigators in High School Girl’s Murder Case
The family of the victim and civic groups have raised urgent demands for the arrest of police investigators suspected of colluding with Jang Yoon-gi, a 23-year-old suspect in the murder of a high school girl, and his father, who is currently a police officer. The incident has sparked widespread public outrage over alleged misconduct by law enforcement.
On July 8 at 11 a.m., the memorial group for the victim, Lee, who was 16 years old, along with the bereaved family, held a press conference outside the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency. They accused the police of not acting as impartial investigators but rather as accomplices in the case. According to their statement, “The police were not investigators who strictly punish crime but accomplices who mishandled the case and systematically concealed it alongside the perpetrator.” They demanded the immediate arrest of all police officials who shielded Jang Yoon-gi and called for legal accountability.
Arrest of Senior Superintendent Park
In response to these allegations, the police special investigation team arrested Senior Superintendent Park, a 59-year-old head of the investigation team at Gwangsan Police Station at the time, on suspicion of hiding a cable tie found in an SUV used to abduct Lee on July 6. The cable tie was reportedly left in a roadside area of Wolgye-dong, Gwangsan-gu, Jeonnam-Gwangju, without being seized. This act is considered destruction of evidence.
Senior Superintendent Park is also under investigation for failing to submit evidentiary footage filmed during the vehicle search to the prosecution. It is alleged that he attempted to destroy the criminal tools prepared by Jang to restrain Lee and hide the footage showing the situation.
The cable tie was physically confirmed during a search and seizure of Jang Yoon-gi’s father’s home by the Gwangju District Prosecutors’ Office the previous day. The cable tie was identified as an industrial type approximately 50 cm in length.
Anger from the Victim’s Family
Lee’s mother expressed her frustration at the press conference, stating, “The police, who are supposed to protect the people, minimized the case and systematically concealed it because the perpetrator is a police family member.” She vented her anger, saying, “The police, whom I thought would investigate more rigorously than anyone and resolve the victim’s grievance, were on the side of the murderer.”
She continued, “I want to ask the police: If the victim had been your own daughter, would you have investigated the case that way?” She added, “It is sad that the reality is turning into a political struggle due to the power struggle between the police and the prosecution, when the priority should be revealing the truth of why the victim was sacrificed.”
Demands for Policy Changes
The bereaved family requested that the family member exception clause, which allows family members to destroy evidence without punishment, be improved through this case and applied to this incident as well.
The memorial group criticized the superintendent, who was urgently arrested on suspicion of destruction of evidence, for making excuses that “even if the investigation was insufficient or incompetent, evidence was not intentionally omitted or destroyed.” They stated, “This shameless behavior of denying the intentionality of the crime and evading responsibility by hiding behind the pretext of ‘incompetence’ is a cruel secondary victimization that drives a stake into the hearts of the bereaved family who lost their daughter overnight.”
They added, “This case cannot be dismissed as the deviation or incompetence of a few frontline investigators,” and said, “There is a strong suspicion that cannot be erased: a typical organizational cover-up investigation in the style of ‘protecting one’s own,’ where higher-ups intervened and colluded to conceal the organization’s shame of ‘a crime by a police family member.’”
Protest Letter to Police Commissioner
After the press conference, the bereaved family and the memorial group submitted a letter of protest to Commissioner Kim Young-geun of the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency regarding the police’s inadequate investigation.
Additional Information
월 5900원 멤버십, 신문 독자에게는 2900원, 조선멤버십
55000원 상당의 신문-잡지 8종 마음껏 보기, 조선멤버십
현금처럼 쓸 7000포인트 받아 알뜰한 쇼핑, 조선멤버십
