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| A police officer shows firecrackers which Seong Byeong-dae, who shot a policeman to death Wednesday, used to collect gunpowder to make firearms, at Gangbuk Police Station in northeastern Seoul, Thursday. Police found 17 homemade guns in his bag. / Yonhap |
17 improvised guns found in cop killer suspect's bag
By Jung Min-ho
The firearm used to kill a police officer in Seoul Wednesday evening was an improvised gun, but it proved powerful enough to be deadly.
Police believe the suspect, Seong Byeong-dae, 46, who killed police officer Kim Chang-ho, 54, in northern Seoul, made his weapons based on information available online. In his bag, police found 17 handmade guns and an explosive device along with sharp objects.
Buying and selling firearms is illegal in Korea. Yet information on how to make them can be easily found online with a simple Google search.
Under the law, those who upload such information online can face a prison sentence of up to two years or a fine of 500,000 won ($450). However, the information is mostly available on foreign-based websites, over which Korean law enforcement has little control.
Seong's firearms were made of wood, rubber bands, sticky tape, iron pipes, steel balls and gunpowder. All the materials can be bought legally, and how to turn them into a deadly weapon can also be learned from thousands of online videos.
The current laws are powerless to prevent such crimes, and the killing of the police officer was not the first one to highlight this issue.
In 2013, a man wounded three people with a handmade gun as he attempted to kill his ex-girlfriend. In 2010, a high school student was apprehended for making a lethal weapon which police said was as powerful as a military rifle; during a police interrogation, the student said he relied on online information to make it.
According to police, Seong was released from prison in 2012 for raping a teenage girl and ordered to wear an electronic ankle monitor until January 2017.
His motive is still unclear. Seong cut off the monitor, which alerted the police, then hit his former landlord, surnamed Lee, with a hammer. When police arrived at the scene, Seong started shooting at them, killing officer Kim.
With the help of other people on the scene, police apprehended Seong near Mount Opae Tunnel in Gangbuk-gu, northeastern Seoul.
People living in his neighborhood said Seong and Lee were often at odds with each other until Seong moved out of Lee's building recently.
Messages posted on his Facebook page also suggest that Seong might have harbored grudges against the police after spending many years in prison. On Oct. 11, he said, "I will come into conflict with the police in the next couple of days. I want to kill as many police officers as possible."
After the exchange of gunfire with police officers, Seong also suffered from bullet wounds but has so far refused treatment, police said.
In addition to those engaged in the gunfight, a civilian, 71, was accidently shot and has been hospitalized.
Police said they carried out an autopsy on Kim, who started his career in 1989 and was six years away from retirement. He body will be buried at the National Cemetery in Daejeon.
