One victim died in a knife rampage at the office of a street housing redevelopment association in Gangdong-gu, Seoul.
According to police on the 5th, among the three victims, a woman in her 50s, identified as A, who suffered severe neck injuries, died the previous afternoon. The other two also injured their necks but were said to be recovering at a hospital.
Accordingly, a murder charge was additionally applied to a man in his 60s, identified as Cho, who was arrested at the scene the previous day on suspicion of attempted murder.
Cho is suspected of attempting to kill two female employees, including A in her 50s, and a man in his 70s who was the interim association head, by stabbing them with a weapon at about 10:20 a.m. that day at the office of the street housing redevelopment association in Cheonho-dong, Gangdong-gu. Cho is understood to have been the previous head of the association. He was said to have lived alone with his wife in the street housing redevelopment zone.
According to association officials, Cho was sent to trial on charges of indecent assault for allegedly molesting A while drunk as he was returning home after finishing a construction contract in July. Cho was then removed from the post of association head, and when the court sought a fine, he reportedly visited A to seek a settlement. The Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors Office summarily indicted Cho on Oct. 31, four days before the crime, on a charge of indecent assault.
A person surnamed B, who runs a real estate business nearby, said, "After Cho had a sexual harassment issue with A, he held a grudge against the association."
Prosecutors the previous day applied for a "general referral," which asks the court to send Cho's indecent assault case to a full trial for reconsideration. If the request is accepted, the trials for Cho's indecent assault and murder charges are expected to be combined.
Police also plan to apply for an arrest warrant for Cho on this day. Police are also reviewing applying a charge of retaliatory murder under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes.
The minimum sentence for murder is five years in prison, but if the killing is committed in retaliation for the investigation or trial of a criminal case, the penalty is at least 10 years in prison.