Knife rampage suspect doesn`t remember crime details: police

SEOUL, Oct. 21 (Yonhap) -- The suspected killer in a knife rampage that left six people dead and seven injured at a lodging house in Seoul says he doesn't remember how he committed the crime but is generally cooperative with the probe, police said Tuesday.

The 31-year-old man, who was identified only by his surname Jeong, was arrested
early Monday after he set fire to his room in a low-cost lodging house and
launched a frenzied attack on fleeing residents with a sushi knife.
Five people, including three Korean-Chinese migrant workers, were stabbed to
death, while another died after jumping out of the four-story building. The death
toll may rise, with four of the injured in serious condition, police said.
"He says neither does he know who the victims are nor remember how he committed
the crime," a police officer at Gangnam Police Station said.
The suspect calmly answered questions for the probe, and police plan to seek an
arrest warrant, he said.
The Chinese embassy in Seoul organized an emergency team to follow up on the
accident and provide care for the victims, according to China News Service.
Jeong's crime reignited fears of indiscriminate killing driven by the country's
economic slowdown. Jeong had worked as a food delivery man since moving to Seoul
from his rural home in 2002 but became jobless in April and could not pay rent
for his single room, mobile phone bill and a 1.5 million won (US$1,130) fine for
skipping a reserve forces training.
"The world looks down on me. I don't want to live," he was quoted as telling
police.
"He would have wanted to express his anger toward the authorities or those who
represent society, but given the fact that they are beyond his reach, it seems
that he made the building and a number of unknown people he had access to his
target," Pyo Chang-won, a criminal psychology professor at Korea National Police
University, said.
Indiscriminate killings by people in their 30s increased in recent years,
including a knife attack by a 36-year-old jobless man who stabbed a high school
girl to death while she was jogging with a friend in April.
In 2005, Yoo Yeong-cheol was sentenced to life in prison for killing 21 elderly
people and women.
According to police data, the number of those killed by unknown assailants
increased to 364 last year from 303 in 2005.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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