Female corporal identified as trigger puller in Seoul BB gun incident

[한겨레] 22-year-old woman told Seoul police she fired the BB gun "for fun" and "without thinking"

By Choi Yu-bin, staff reporter

A 22-year-old female corporal with USFK has been identified as the person who fired BBs at citizens during a disturbance in downtown Seoul on the night of Mar. 2.

Yongsan Police Station in Seoul reported on Mar. 6 that the woman had admitted firing the gun "for fun" and "without thinking" during two days of questioning after the incident.

The owner of the car, a 26-year-old staff sergeant identified by the initial "L," also said during questioning that three BB guns purchased at an Itaewon store last year were present in the vehicle, one of which was the weapon used by the corporal. The detail suggests that US troops may have fired them at other citizens on other occasions in the past. Police are currently looking for the weapons, which the suspects reported throwing away as they fled the scene.

Police also believe "L" and another soldier, a 23-year-old private first class identified as "D," also fired guns, but they are reportedly denying the accusation.

Their accounts also differ over who was driving the vehicle when it struck a police officer and citizen. D and the corporal both claim that L was driving, while L said that he had been driving at first but that D took over when the chase started. Police summoned L and the corporal to the station on Mar. 6 for three hours of questioning, but no conclusion was reached.

D underwent surgery that same morning at a hospital in the Yongsan Garrision in Seoul to remove a bullet in his shoulder that was fired by a South Korean police officer during the pursuit. The police said that they had asked his physician for urine and blood samples to check for the presence of drugs, and that the samples were collected and sent to the National Forensic Service.

Meanwhile, the group Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea held a press conference on Mar. 6 in front of the Yongsan Garrison.

"It is terrifying in itself that US soldiers were going around in the middle of the night firing a BB gun at citizens," the group said. "The USFK Command needs to make an official apology to the people of South Korea and turn the suspects over immediately to the South Korean judicial authorities."

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