Jang Yoon-gi, 23, who is accused of fatally stabbing a teen girl on a street in Gwangju and injuring another, is transferred to prosecutors from the Gwangju Seobu Police Station on May 14. (Yonhap)
Police on Thursday released the identity of 23-year-old Jang Yoon-gi, who was arrested on charges of fatally stabbing a high school girl and injuring a male student in an apparently random attack in Gwangju on May 5.
The Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency said Jang’s personal information — including his name, age and mugshot — will remain posted on its website for 30 days through June 12.
South Korea discloses a suspect’s identity under strict guidelines and only when an ad-hoc review committee determines that the case meets certain legal criteria. The decision to reveal Jang’s identity was made during a May 8 review meeting, but the release was delayed after Jang refused to consent to the disclosure.
Jang is accused of stabbing a 17-year-old second-year high school girl to death and injuring a 17-year-old male student who came to help after hearing her screams. The attack occurred at around 12:11 a.m. on May 5 on a walkway near a university in Wolgye-dong, Gwangju.
White chrysanthemums are placed on a pedestrian walkway in Wolgye-dong, Gwangju, on May 6, where a high school girl was killed and a male high school student was injured in an apparently random knife attack. (Yonhap)
During police questioning, he reportedly said, “I was going to die anyway, so I wanted to take someone with me.”
Police plan to hand him over to prosecutors later Thursday.
Jang Yoon-gi, 23, who is accused of fatally stabbing a teen girl on a street in Gwangju and injuring another, is transferred to prosecutors from the Gwangju Seobu Police Station on May 14. (Yonhap)
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