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| Four middle school students are taken out of Namdong Police Station in Incheon, Friday, for a court review for arrest warrants, as another boy died after falling from an apartment building while allegedly being assaulted by them, Tuesday. The court issued the warrants. / Yonhap |
By Kim Rahn
Police are investigating the death of a middle school boy who died after falling from an apartment building while allegedly being assaulted by his fellow students.
They asked the prosecution to file for arrest warrants for the four alleged offenders, three second-grade middle school boys and a third-grade girl. A local court issued the warrants, Friday.
According to Yeonsu Police Station in Incheon, the four students assaulted the 14-year-old boy, whose name was withheld, on the rooftop of a 15-story apartment building in Yeonsu-gu from about 5:20 p.m. Tuesday.
The boy fell from the building at 6:40 p.m., and police suspected he did so while trying to avoid the assault.
The suspects said they were angry because the boy made fun of the appearance of one of their fathers, and planned the assault in retaliation. They took the boy's electronic cigarette and told him to come to the rooftop if he wanted it back.
After he fell, the offenders came down and stood around him. A security guard found the body and reported it to police. The boy was already dead when police arrived.
After conducting an autopsy, the National Forensic Service confirmed that the fall killed the boy.
Police plan to charge the suspects with inflicting injury resulting in death, not murder, believing the four did not deliberately push the boy off the roof.
The suspects claimed the boy was not trying to avoid the attack and just jumped off the building. They also said they used to be close to the boy, until he made fun of the father, denying that they had been bullying him for a long time.
"Despite the suspects' claim, we concluded, through surveillance camera recordings, that he fell while trying to avoid their assault," a police officer said. "The assault and the fall were correlated."
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