Teenager brutally killed after months of abuse

Police announced Tuesday that they are investigating a group of teenagers for beating one of their roommates to death on Sunday. The group turned themselves in on Monday.

The group had been abusing the victim for months, according to the police.

Five teenagers were hanging out in their studio apartment in Buk District, Gwangju, on Saturday night. After having dinner around 10 p.m., the group started playing a bullying game. In the game, the victim had to mock another member of the group.

Angry that he was made fun of, the other teenager allegedly started beating the victim around 1 a.m. on Sunday. Soon, the other three joined in. They took turns punching and kicking the victim’s face, chest and belly for over two hours. Each person attacked the victim dozens of times.

The victim was then told to bring cigarettes from a car, but could not find them. He was beaten again and lost consciousness.

One of the teenagers attempted CPR when the victim stopped breathing, but was unsuccessful.

After they realized the victim had died, the group fled the scene in a rental car to their hometown of Sunchang, North Jeolla, leaving the body in the apartment and reportedly taking the victim’s phone. Not long after the group fled, the boys went back to get one of their rings. The boys were shown in CCTV footage returning to the apartment around 4:15 a.m.

The teenagers confessed the crime to Sunchang police around 10:30 p.m. on Monday.

Detectives went to the apartment in Buk District to confirm that the body was there. The teenagers were then transferred to the Gwangju police.

Police said the teenagers all met at a vocational school in Gwangju and invited the victim to live with them, which was actually a scheme to use him as their errand boy. They had been living together in the studio apartment since March.

Police said that the teenagers had been beating the victim for around two months with umbrellas, crutches and cleaning rods.

The victim had several bruises on his body. As the suspects are minors, police plan to interview them alongside their parents and request a pre-trial detention warrant.

BY JUNG MYUNG-SUK, YONHAP [jung.myungsuk@joongang.co.kr]