'They wouldn't pay me back. It's sad they died': says stabbing spree suspect

Suspect claims unpaid debt led to murder, police say other attacks appear to be motivated by grudges held against victims

Cha Cheol-nam, the suspect in two murders and two additional knife attacks, is escorted by police officers to Siheung Police Station in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province on Monday. (Yonhap)

Cha Cheol-nam, the man arrested for double homicide and non-fatal attacks on two others, told reporters Monday that he killed the victims because they had not paid back money owed to him for over a decade.

"There were financial dealings (with the victims). They borrowed money from me and didn't pay it back for 12 years," he said while being taken to the Siheung Police Station Monday evening, adding that it was "sad" that people died. Cha was captured in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province at around 7:24 p.m.

He did not put up any resistance when police arrested him, admitted to all accusations, and is now under custody while police investigate him.

Cha, a Chinese man of Korean ethnicity in his 50s, was subject to a wide-scale manhunt after knife attacks against a convenience store owner in her 50s and a man in his 70s on Monday. Cha fled in a stolen car after committing the initial attack at 9:30 a.m. Police then went to the residence of the car owner at around 11 a.m. where they discovered a body.

Shortly after the second attack, the owner of a building Cha currently resides in, officers found another body inside the suspect's residence. The second dead victim was found to be the brother of the first deceased victim. Both men were Chinese nationals and Cha's neighbors.

Both deaths are believed to have occurred a few days before Monday's knife attacks. Officials have yet to identify the exact nature of their relationship with the suspect.

Police believe that the two attacks on Monday occurred because Cha held a grudge against the victims, who he had been acquainted with.

The brutal attacks raised a city-wide alarm; Siheung authorities notified its residents to refrain from going outside via emergency text at around 4:40 p.m. Code 0, the highest level of police alert, was issued as officials launched a manhunt for the suspect.