A man in his 40s who shot steel balls with a slingshot at about 30 homes while wandering around high-rise apartment complexes in the Bucheon area for over a year was arrested. Wonmi Police Station in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province announced on the 10th that it had arrested a man in his 40s on charges of destroying special property. On the 5th, the court issued a warrant after questioning the suspect before arresting Mr. A (warrant review), saying, “There is a concern about escape. From July 2021 to September last year, Mr. A is accused of damaging windows by shooting 7-8 mm steel beads with a slingshot at 34 places, including 30 private homes and 4 public windows in 4 apartment complexes in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province. It was found that the homes and public windows that suffered damage from the iron beads were all high-rises of 20 or more floors, and 20 of them were apartments in the same complex as the apartment where Mr. A lives. It was found that Mr. A shot iron balls at high-rise apartments while walking around the rooftops and parks of his apartment complex. The police commissioned the National Institute of Scientific Investigation to estimate the launch point through the damage point. As a result, the place where Mr. A is estimated to be living was identified, and the suspected households were compressed into about 1,000 households. Afterwards, after looking up the purchase history of iron beads and slingshots on the Internet, Mr. A was identified. At first, Mr. A committed the crime using a slingshot he bought on the Internet, but later it was found that he also made a slingshot himself out of wood. About 100 iron beads and a homemade wooden slingshot were also found in the trunk of Mr. A’s vehicle. In a police investigation, Mr. A said, ‘I threw away the slingshot I bought myself. It was found that he made a statement to the effect that he put a can in the park and shot an iron ball, and later shot an iron ball at a high-rise apartment building. The police plan to sooner or later apply the charge of damaging special property to Mr. A and forward the case to the prosecution. Reporter Lee Seung-wook seugwookl@hani.co.kr
