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Woo Bum-kon

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Woo Bum-kon
File:Woo Bum-kon.jpeg
Undated photo of Woo
Native name
우범곤
Personal details
Born
Woo Bum-kon

March 18, 1955
, South Gyeongsang, South Korea
Died April 27, 1982(1982-04-27) (aged 27)
Uiryeong, South Gyeongsang, South Korea
Occupation Policeman, former South Korean Marine
W
Hangul 우범곤
Hanja 禹範坤
Revised Romanization U Beom-gon
McCune–Reischauer U Pŏmgon
In this article, the family name is Woo.

Woo Bum-kon[lower-alpha 1] (Korean language: 우범곤 , March 18, 1955 – April 27, 1982) was a South Korean policeman and spree killer who murdered 62 people and wounded around 35 others in several villages in Uiryeong County, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea, during the night from April 26 to April 27, 1982, before committing suicide.

Background[]

Woo Bum-kon had served in the Republic of Korea Marine Corps, where he was recognized as a skilled marksman until his discharge in 1978.[1] From April 11 until December 30 of 1981, he served as a police officer and, with his marksmanship ability, was able to work as a guard at the Blue House.[2] However, Woo's excessive drinking habits and subsequent behavior caused him to be demoted to his position at Kungyu Village in Uiryeong County, South Gyeongsang Province.[3][4] Woo's girlfriend later said that her boyfriend "suffered from an inferiority complex and had been bothered by villagers' comments on their living together unmarried".[5]

Attack[]

Prelude[]

On the afternoon of April 26, 1982, Woo had an argument with his live-in girlfriend, Chun Mal-soon (전말순), after she had woken him by swatting a fly on his chest.[5] Enraged, Woo left the house and went to the police station, where he reported for duty at 4:00 p.m. According to early reports, he began drinking heavily, though eyewitnesses later stated that he did not appear drunk during his rampage. According to local officials, he would have been unable to cover 4 km (2.5 mi) of difficult, rocky terrain while intoxicated.[citation needed]

At about 7:30 p.m., Woo returned home, assaulted his girlfriend and smashed their furniture before making his way to the reservists' armory and gathering several weapons, consisting of two M2 carbines, two handguns, at least 180 rounds of ammunition, and seven hand grenades.[3][5] Some reports stated that the other officers were at a meeting, and he therefore managed to grab the weapons unnoticed,[6] though others mentioned that he had intimidated the guards to gain access.[citation needed]

Rampage begins[]

At approximately 9:30 p.m., Woo shot his first victim and entered the local post office, where he killed three phone operators and cut off the telephone lines.[7] He next went to Torongni, where he threw a grenade and shot at passers-by in the marketplace, killing six people. He also wounded Chun Mal-soon, who had gone to investigate after hearing shots in the village.[7] From that point on, he proceeded from village to village, taking advantage of his position as a police officer to gain entry to the houses and shoot their inhabitants.

At 10:30 p.m., Woo took 18-year-old Kim Ju-dong (김주동) hostage and moved to Ungye-Ri (운계리), where he ordered Kim to get him a soft drink from a grocery store owned by 52-year-old Shin We-do (신외도). After getting what he had asked for, Woo killed Kim and then attacked the store owner and his family. Shin We-do managed to escape after being shot in the leg, though his wife Son Won-jeom (손원점) and his daughters Chang-sun (창순) and Su-jeong (수정) were killed.[8] Woo continued his shooting at the market-place, killing a total of 18 people in that village, before making his way towards Pyongchon-Ni (평촌리).[4][8]

At Pyongchon-Ni, he shot a family of four in their beds and then went to another house where the owner was awake. When the owner of the house saw the armed policeman and asked what had happened, Woo explained that there was an alert as North Korean agents had been spotted. The man invited Woo into the house for dinner, during which the latter complained about his small salary and his transfer from Pusan to the countryside. Woo eventually began shooting at the guests after one of them had remarked that his ammunition did not look real.[citation needed] He killed twelve people in the house and a further eight in the streets, thus leaving a total of 24 people dead in Pyongchon-ni.[citation needed]

Police response, suspect's death[]

Although police were alerted within minutes of the first shots being fired, it took them an hour to gather a team of 37 officers to search for the gunman, and the national police headquarters in Seoul were not informed until 1:40 a.m.[9] Around that time, just 4 km (2.5 mi) from the police station in Kungryu, Woo found refuge in a farmhouse belonging to 68-year-old Suh In-Su (서인수), whom he told that he was chasing a Communist infiltrator, and that the family should gather in the main room of the house so he could protect them. When the family gathered at his request, he held them hostage.[citation needed]

Two hours later, police eventually caught up with him, and as forces closed in, Woo strapped two grenades to his chest and detonated them, killing himself and three of his hostages. Suh himself survived gravely injured.[10] Four rounds of ammunition and one hand grenade were recovered by police from inside the farmhouse.[8]

Immediate aftermath[]

When the rampage finally ended, 55 people and Woo himself were dead, while around 42 others were wounded. Six of the injured later died from their injuries, including a child who died on May 8. At that time, the injured were being treated in hospitals in Jinju and Masan.[11][12]

Later on, the provincial chief of police was suspended and four other officers were arrested for negligence of duty.[1][7]

Child grieves after losing his family in the massacre

Child grieves after losing his family in the massacre

Aftermath[]

The Interior Minister of South Korea, Suh Chung-hwa, and the national police chief, A Eung-mo, offered to resign as a form of atonement for Woo's rampage.[1] Suh Chung-hwa, being held responsible for the incident by president Chun Doo-hwan, resigned his commission on April 29, and Roh Tae-woo was appointed Interior Minister.[13][9]

A special parliamentary team was formed, consisting of 19 parliamentarians and led by Home Affairs Committee chairman Kim Chong-hoh, to investigate the massacre and its disastrous handling by the police.[9] Furthermore, the South Korean Cabinet decided to pay compensations to the victims and their families.[14] The death toll of the massacre is disputed from source to source. 57 people were confirmed dead initially, and 6 were later confirmed dead due to related injuries, but some South Korean sources state that the death toll may have risen to at least 75 after multiple injured victims succumbed to their wounds. Despite the conflicting reports on the death toll, the injury count consistently remains around 35 or more from all available sources.[citation needed]

See also[]

  • List of rampage killers
  • List of man-made disasters in South Korea

Notes[]

  1. ↑ Alternatively transliterated as Wou Bom-kon

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Cop kills 55 after quarrel with mistress" (in en). New Straits Times. April 28, 1982. p. 1. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=erYTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6I8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=2985%2C5729616. 
  2. ↑ 동아일보, April 28, 1982, p. 7
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Berserk Korean policeman kills 62" (in en-US). Gainesville Sun. April 27, 1982. p. 14A. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Qi0RAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mukDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7077,5239639. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "28명 죽이고 초상집 문상… 부의금 3000원 낸 뒤 또 난사" (in ko). The Hankyoreh. April 13, 2012. http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/society_general/528275.html. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Wife says deranged policeman was 'hard to please'" (in en-US). United Press International. April 28, 1982. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/04/28/Wife-says-deranged-policeman-was-hard-to-please/2093388814400/. 
  6. ↑ "Berserk South Korea cop slays total of 56 people" (in en-US). Lodi News-Sentinel. April 28, 1982. p. 3. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=YIIzAAAAIBAJ&sjid=wDIHAAAAIBAJ&pg=4374,7069100. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Seoul is stunned by policeman's slaying of 56" (in en-US). The New York Times. April 28, 1982. p. 5. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/28/world/seoul-is-stunned-by-policeman-s-slaying-of-56.html. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 "Korean policeman's rampage leaves 58 dead" (in en-US). The Daily Union. April 27, 1982. p. 8. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=p6c_AAAAIBAJ&sjid=H1YMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2841,2183785. 
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Minister sacked over massacre" (in en). New Straits Times. April 29, 1982. p. 1. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=e7YTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6I8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=3761%2C5926112. 
  10. ↑ Ricochet from a rampage. Far Eastern Economic Review. May 7, 1982. https://books.google.com/books?id=hFxOAQAAIAAJ. 
  11. ↑ "Murder toll rises to 56" (in en). The Straits Times. May 10, 1982. p. 3. https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/page/straitstimes19820510.1.3. 
  12. ↑ "사망자 56·부상 35명|일부 사망자수 중복…집계 엇갈려" (in ko). JoongAng Media Network Group. April 28, 1982. http://news.joins.com/article/1630710. 
  13. ↑ "South Korean Shootings Lead Minister to Resign" (in en-US). The New York Times. April 29, 1982. p. 9. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/29/world/around-the-world-south-korean-shootings-lead-minister-to-resign.html. 
  14. ↑ "Victims of amok slayings to get compensation" (in en). New Straits Times. April 30, 1982. p. 15. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fLYTAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6I8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=3927%2C6210638. 

Further reading[]

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