By This should really come as no surprise that attempted murder charges will probably be given to the USFK soldier involved in this month’s brutal knife attack:
South Korean police will ask local prosecutors to charge a U.S. soldier with attempted murder for a knife attack that injured three people near Osan Air Base earlier this month, they said Thursday.
A bar worker, 27, from the Philippines is off life support, out of intensive care and recovering well despite multiple stab wounds that damaged a lung, intestines and other organs in the March 6 incident, police said Thursday.
But a South Korean air force captain who rushed to her aid suffered wounds that may handicap him for life, a police official told Stars and Stripes. Capt. Cho Jae-hwi underwent surgery to repair damaged glands and other facial injuries, but only partial repairs were possible because his wounds were too extensive, police said.
A second man who went to the woman’s aid, Lee Taek-woon, 27, suffered knife wounds to the leg.
He is making a steady recovery but is still unable to walk, he told Stars and Stripes earlier this week.
All three are expected to remain hospitalized for about another six weeks, police said.
Their alleged assailant is a U.S. soldier assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Aviation Regiment, General Support Aviation Battalion, part of the 2nd Infantry Division’s 2nd Combat Aviation Brigade.
He remains in pretrial confinement at the Eighth U.S. Army Confinement Facility at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek. [Stars & Stripes]
It is good to see that the victim is recovering and it is unfortunate the two people who rescued her are as severely injured as they are. The USFK servicemember must have just been totally out of control to have inflicted such injuries on everyone trying to subdue him.
12:23 pm on March 20th, 2009 1
Yep, it's incredible how much damage an OJ deranged stalker can do to multiple victims. No wonder OJ's ex wife and her friend didn't have a chance.
12:46 pm on March 20th, 2009 2
I thought I read in the other posting regarding this situation that the woman died. Did I misread something?
3:18 pm on March 20th, 2009 3
The articles I read said he was 37.
3:29 pm on March 20th, 2009 4
Time to trick the spam filter… again.
PART I
"…it is unfortunate the two people who rescued her are as severely injured as they are."
They will be in the hospital until the doctors can reattach their missing white envelope stuffed with American cash…
…which will be enough to recognize the fact that Korean officers fall between Korean bargirls and Korean schooolgirls on the Anti-American GI Violence Reactionary Demonstration Scale.
3:33 pm on March 20th, 2009 5
PART II
"how old is this wingunt GI?"
"The soldier is a 37-year-old speciialist assigned as a supply clerk with 3rd Battaalion, 2nd Aviiation Regiiment Geneeral Suppport Aviiation Battaalion."
3:34 pm on March 20th, 2009 6
PART III
"Or someone who’s psych eval should have picked up something?"
If she really did the number on him, his reaction would be the first completely sane and rational act with clear and understandable motivations that I have seen from any GI dealing with juicies.
3:46 pm on March 20th, 2009 7
GI,
In part II, I had to misspell those words to get the spam filter to accept it.
Some very odd political and military-related words have caused a post to be lost… not added to a moderation cue… just lost.
I bet this post with "Extend Your Minuscule Male Organ by Meeting Local School Girls In Your Area" goes through just fine.
4:21 pm on March 20th, 2009 8
Besides getting past the spam filters, your attempt to perpetrate and be an impostor was lame. ChickenHaed not equal ChickenHead.
4:48 pm on March 20th, 2009 9
No, she didn't die, but she is still in serious condition. The person who said that was repeating something he heard on the filipina gissmus (gossip) line.
Now that the Korean Justice system says they want to take the handle on this, I have a few more things to say.
From day one I asked how will the victim be treated. I should have said 'victims.' From what I understand, USFK has been keeping its distance.
* Maybe a Korean prosecution will turn the screws on USFK to do more for the health and welfare of the victims. *** GOOD ***
* The Korean Justice system is much more tolerant and forgiving than the American or military justice system on these types of crimes. He will probably get 2 years and release back to the streets of the States to stalk and try to kill again. *** BAD ***
5:00 pm on March 20th, 2009 10
Last thing. He seems to be preparing to cop the 'I was so drunk, I don't remember what happened' plea.
Mr. prosecutor, ask him about the knife. The fact that he was carrying a knife argues for the case that it was premeditated.
7:51 pm on March 20th, 2009 11
Just out of curiousity, how old is this wing-nut GI? Are we talking about a kid still wet behind the ears? Or someone who’s psych eval should have picked up something?
6:56 pm on March 20th, 2009 12
JoeC,
"your attempt to perpetrate and be an impostor was lame."
Hmmm… I'm not sure there was any impostor-ing going on. Sometimes a name is linked to several attempts to post a message. A slight variation in name reduces one variable when determining what arbitrary word is hanging the filter.
"The fact that he was carrying a knife argues for the case that it was premeditated."
I have no idea what it is about Army boys but a LOT of them carry knives in Songtan.
In many cases, they would buy them downtown on the carts and then start waving them around to show off after heavy drinking.
I never had a problem talking them out of them… and I placed them behind the bar for safe-keeping. A few guys came back the next day and picked up the good knives (like Spydercos from the States) but most of them forgot about them… as they were drunk when they bought them, drunk when they flashed them and drunk when they gave them to me.
I still have a box of about 20 Chinese-made turds that are pretty much only good for stabbing juicies… and, maybe, cutting your own fingers off when the blade folds by itself.
Morally, I would like to return their property… but a nine dollar knife is a pretty fare trade for a career that doesn't consist of being stressed every time you drop the soap.
I imagine the stabbing was premeditated… but carrying a knife is kinda normal. (We all remember Private Humphries cutting the taxi driver's throat in Seoul).
This knife culture has been a true force protection issue that I have harped on for years… but no use.
I guess evil-sounding drink names are more dangerous.
7:47 pm on March 20th, 2009 13
"I have no idea what it is about Army boys but a LOT of them carry knives in Songtan."
I didn't know that. But if I ever see a drunk GI flashing a weapon downtown, I would speed dial the town patrol with a message and his picture. Phone cameras are good for something.
7:59 pm on March 20th, 2009 14
All the gangsta's in sucky Songtan carry knives. What a shitehole.
8:17 pm on March 20th, 2009 15
Oops! I forgot. Most police hotline systems probably can't receive multimedia messages. Crime stopper suggestion shot down.
Maybe this can be defined as an infrastructure problem and Stimulus Plan money can be applied to fix it.
2:55 am on March 21st, 2009 16
LOL…I have come to the conclusion that we just can't have one thread without bashing on Koreans, not one.
Here they are, heroes risked their lives who saved this woman's life, and getting almost killed for it. And we still have bitter expats bashing on Koreans. If they didn't lift their fingers to help, they would have been bashed and stereotyped as typical Koreans for not helping. Either way, this was coming.
And you wonder why Koreans have anti American feelings.
2:58 am on March 21st, 2009 17
Not surprising, when most of them come from culture of violent gangster raps and gangster wannabes. Just because they're in the US army, their bad habits don't go away.
3:54 am on March 21st, 2009 18
Tom…
You misunderstand. This was not a bash against Koreans. It was simply a statement of fact.
One could even say Korean are amateurs when it comes to collecting money in this way.
An American victim's lawyer would already be moving in on all the bars who served the obviously-intoxicated stabbber, the Songtan business associations who didn't provide security in a potentially dangerous area, the cart which sold him the knife, etc.
I don't know their exact condition but the S&S article says, "All three are expected to remain hospitalized for about another six weeks."
Now, I'm no doctor… but it doesn't exactly ring true that the two guys with ugly, but basically superficial wounds, are going to be released about the same time as the girl who got the gift of cold steel through her "lung, intestines and other organs".
We both know how the Korean system works. Don't pretend otherwise, Tom. A bit of malingering proportional to the perceived severity of the injury is part of the equation.
Many things you mistake for anti-Korean comments are actually anti-people comments. It just happens that this is a Korea-related blog where many posters deal with more Koreans than anyone else on a daily basis.
If it makes you feel better, Tom, most people here certainly recognized that they did the right thing at great risk to themselves…
…despite being Korean.
Nawwww… I'm fuokin' with you now, Tom.
9:19 am on March 22nd, 2009 19
I agree with this comment, but not the implication of "most". Change it to "some" and no one can disagree.
9:23 am on March 22nd, 2009 20
I would like someone to run this guy through a background check. I'm willing to bet this isn't the first time he has committed a crime like this, but the Army recruiter either didn't find it or hid it.
2:47 am on March 25th, 2009 21
This guy was jealous that his juicy girlfriend was ignoring him for a higher-paying customer. The Korean guys were probably the ones that just paid to fUk her in the sing-room while he waited for her to come out, and he freaked when he saw the spooge on her chin.
Oh, and I bet he probably just nicked them with the knife and they are milking the injury for 6 weeks, because it's customary in Korea to get $500/week for 'suffering' pay for being in a hospital, plus whatever the court awards them for their trouble and fines the perp for breaking the law.
What's really f'd up is I had a friend whose wife was followed home by a Korean guy, he forced his way into their apartment in an attempt to rape her, and the husband their the bastard down the stairs of the apartment. Guess who was arrested? The American husband, of course, and they made the wife and husband apologize to the korean guy. What kind of B.S. justice is that?
FuK ROK and FuK the ROK justice system that discriminates against foreigners. The short-DIK cops are just jealous because the mee-gooks please the Korean women better than their egg-roll pricks can.
GO FuK yourselves, haters.
2:48 am on March 25th, 2009 22
Sorry, I meant "threw the bastard down the stairs." Sorry for the broken Englishie !