Jeong Jae-hwan, 24, who was arrested for brutally killing a friend at an apartment in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, has not disclosed a specific motive for the crime. On the 16th, police revealed Jeong's personal information 12 days after the incident.
Jeong is accused of stabbing a friend to death with a weapon while drinking together at an apartment in Hayang-eup, Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, at around 4:35 a.m. on the 4th of this month. He is known to have wandered the streets naked with blood on his body immediately after the crime.
Police arrested Jeong on the 7th, three days after the incident occurred. During the police investigation, he reportedly did not give a specific account of the circumstances of the crime, saying, "I was drunk and don't remember." However, acquaintances of the victim said the deceased friend met his tragic death while trying to stop Jeong from assaulting another friend.
The bereaved family pointed out that police made an inadequate initial response. In a statement distributed to the media on the 13th, the family claimed that on the day of the crime, Jeong left the scene in a blood-covered, naked state and wandered the streets for about an hour, but police did not immediately subdue him even after encountering him with a patrol car.
CCTV footage released on the 13th through JTBC's "Situation Room" showed Jeong wandering the streets naked immediately after the incident. At the time, Jeong bought milk at a convenience store, then roamed the streets before encountering a police car that had been dispatched. Upon spotting the police car, he changed direction and fled, and police turned their vehicle around to pursue him but ultimately failed to catch him.
Jeong later returned to his own home and was arrested by police who were dispatched after receiving a report from Jeong's friends. The family claimed there was a problem with the initial response, saying, "The suspect wasn't even sprinting at full speed, yet police didn't get out of the car and immediately give chase."
In response, police explained, "At the time, we didn't know he was a murder suspect and had been dispatched in response to a convenience store report. Afterward, a murder report was filed and we went to the scene, but many people were tangled together, so it took time to identify the suspect."
On this day, the North Gyeongsang Provincial Police Agency released the name, age, and mug shot of Jeong, who was arrested on charges including murder. Police had earlier decided to disclose Jeong's identity, taking into account the gravity of the harm, the cruelty of the crime, sufficient evidence of the crime, and the need for public interest such as crime prevention, but Jeong raised an objection. Accordingly, police began releasing his personal information starting on this day, after a five-day grace period had passed. The disclosure period runs until the 18th of next month.
