Police apprehend homeless man over stabbing death of street cleaner

Social Affairs

Police apprehend homeless man over stabbing death of street cleaner

Published: 02 Aug. 2024, 13:49 Updated: 02 Aug. 2024, 18:33

LEE SOO-JUNG
lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr

The logo of police [NEWS1]

Police caught a man who allegedly stabbed a woman to death in the early morning hours in downtown Seoul on Friday.

According to the Seoul Namdaemun Police Precinct on Friday, the suspect in his 70s is accused of murdering an outsourced sanitation worker in her 60s at around 5:10 a.m. in an underground passage near Sungnyemun Gate in Jung District, central Seoul.

Police officers received a report about a bleeding woman.

Although the victim was found conscious and paramedics performed CPR on the way to an emergency room, she was pronounced dead at around 6:20 a.m. after arriving at the hospital.

The officers caught the suspect in a narrow alleyway near a shanty town area in Dongja-dong in Yongsan District in central Seoul at around 8:50 a.m. after tracing him with CCTV footage.

According to a report from the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, the attacker told the police that he committed the crime after he "felt the cleaner was looking down on him while talking" with her.

The offender is believed to be a homeless and unemployed man who has been staying in a temporary shelter near the shanty town, a report from Yonhap News Agency on Friday said.

The police understand that a clash between the suspect and the victim seemed to have occurred while she was cleaning the streets and the conflict resulted in her death.

The police will file a request for an arrest warrant against the suspect after questioning him over the details and motives for the attack. The suspect tested negative in simple drug and alcohol tests.

The police will also ask the National Forensic Service to conduct an autopsy on the victim’s body.

Update, August 2: Added statement from the suspect.

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]