'Mia-dong supermarket killer' found to be psychopath: police
Kim Seong-jin, the 32-year-old man accused of killing one person and injuring another at a supermarket last month, is believed to be a psychopath based on preliminary testing by the police, officials said Monday.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency conducted the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised on Kim last month, and officials said in a media briefing that the analysis points towards psychopathy. They also said that Kim's crime can be described as an "abnormal motive crime," defined by Korean police as offenses against random people with unclear or unconventional motives.
Kim's case was handed over to the prosecution for murder and attempted murder on May 1, after the police revealed his name, age and mugshot on April 29.
He is held accountable for what appears to have been an unprovoked attack against civilians at a supermarket in Mia-dong, northern Seoul, at around 6:20 p.m. on April 22. The attack left a shopper in her 60s dead and a store clerk in her 40s injured.
The incident sent shockwaves across the nation due to the suspect's brutality and bizarre actions. After attacking the victims, who he was not acquainted with, he walked in a seemingly nonchalant manner while smoking a cigarette as he reported his own crime to the police.
His comments included, "I stabbed two people at a market," and "Can you just track my location here?"
The PCL-R is a psychological assessment tool used to measure the extent of psychopathy in individuals. It is commonly used by law enforcement officials on perpetrators of particularly heinous crimes. The 20-item inventory of perceived personality traits and recorded behaviors was originally developed by psychologist Robert D. Hare, and is not a definitive test for psychopathy.
Korean authorities consider individuals with scores of 25 or above out of 40 to be psychopaths, with the average person scoring around 15. Infamous serial killers Yoo Young-chul and Kang Ho-sun were psychopaths according to the test, while Myeong Jae-wan, the teacher who murdered a 7-year-old student the school where she worked, scored below the threshold.
Police refused to reveal Kim Seong-jin's exact score.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
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