US soldiers and Seoul police wounded after Saturday night clash

Posted on : 2013-03-04 14:28 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
Car chase broke out after police called to investigate allegations that soldiers were threatening people in Itaewon with an air rifle

By Um Ji-won and Park Hyun-chul, staff reporters

Gunshots were fired during a chase between police and USFK soldiers that broke out in downtown Seoul late on the night of Mar. 2, resulting in two injuries.

One policeman was struck by a USFK vehicle, while a soldier was wounded in the shoulder after being shot by police.

According to Seoul’s Yongsan Police Station and witnesses, the incident began with a report at around 11:53 pm on Saturday about Americans firing an air rifle on the road in front of the Hamilton Hotel in the Itaewon neighborhood. Two police officers arrived at the scene, one of them a detective named Gwak with the police station’s Itaewon branch. They found a white Optima with three passengers and attempted to inspect it, but the passengers, who included 26-year-old USFK staff sergeant “L” and 23-year-old private first class “D,” refused to comply and drove off.

A 30-year-old officer from the same squad, identified as Lim, hailed a taxi driven by a 38-year-old named Choe and gave chase for around ten minutes, but L escaped into Yongsan Garrison after striking Im with his vehicle near Konkuk University station on Seoul Subway line 2 in the Jayang neighborhood. Im fired one blank and three live rounds in the process.

Im suffered an injury to his left knee, while D was struck in the shoulder with a bullet. Neither injury was life-threatening.

A source at Yongsan Police Station said there was no confirmation as to whether the soldiers had air rifles, but added that the police planned to investigate and interrogate L, who drove the vehicle that fled the inspection and struck an officer.

L appeared at the station at around 5am on Sunday for questioning just after the incident, but D refused to present himself because he was undergoing medical treatment. The police had ordered D to appear by 4 am. The identity of the third passenger, a woman, was not disclosed.

The soldiers are facing charges of hitting a police officer with a car, fleeing the scene, and threatening people with an air rifle. But they cannot be summoned for interrogation by South Korean police without the cooperation of the USFK. Article 22 of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) prevents a complete first-arrival interrogation through immediate in-person questioning because the suspects were not arrested by the South Korean police.

Brig. Gen. Chris Gentry, deputy commanding general for the US Eighth Army, visited Yongsan Police Station on Sunday afternoon to express USFK’s dismay over the incident and pledge full cooperation with the investigation.

The unusual gesture of immediate cooperation appeared to stem from the exceptional nature of the incident, which involved a gunfight and chase in the middle of Seoul, with US soldiers threatening members of the public with an air rifle.

 

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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