The police Head of Team was arrested on charges of destroying evidence, a "cable tie" that could have been used as a binding tool, during the investigation of "Gwangju high school girl murderer" Jang Yun-gi, 23.
According to legal sources, on the 8th the Gwangju District Court issued an arrest warrant after holding a pre-arrest suspect interrogation (warrant review) for Inspector A of the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station, who is accused of destroying evidence. Inspector A was the Head of Team of the investigative team that handled the Jang Yun-gi case.
The court said it issued the warrant for Inspector A because "there are concerns about destruction of evidence and flight."
Inspector A is accused of destroying one of the key pieces of evidence, a cable tie, during the search and seizure of Jang Yun-gi's SUV, the suspect's vehicle, on May 5, shortly after the incident.
Video that recorded the scene shows Inspector A discovering a bundle of cable ties in the SUV's passenger-side storage compartment but leaving them without securing them. It was also reported that A instructed a field team member to leave the cable ties in the car as they were.
As a result, the cable ties, a key piece of evidence for the rape-murder charge against Jang Yun-gi, remained only on video, and the physical items disappeared.
The Korean National Police Agency National Office of Investigation (NOI) special investigation team urgently arrested Inspector A on the 6th. After that, it summoned Jang Yun-gi's father, who is suspected of colluding with the investigative team, as a reference witness that day and questioned him.
The special investigation team is under investigation into how Jang Yun-gi's father, an active-duty police officer, repeatedly received updates on the status of his son's case and disposed of key evidence, including a real doll (an adult product modeled after a woman's body).
Prosecutors also summoned two police officers from the Gwangsan Police Station as reference witnesses that day and questioned them. The officers were reportedly investigators who had been assigned to the Jang Yun-gi case in May.