Woo Bum-Kon (우범근) (February 24, 1955 – April 27, 1982) was a Korean police officer who carried out the worst incident of spree killing in known history, killing 58 (including himself), and wounding 35 in Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea.
[edit] Background
Woo was originally a police officer in Seoul, but was sent off to a rural village in Uiryeong-gun (의령군). Dispirited from being left out of the career path, he was also under enormous emotional strain from being unable to gather enough money to hold a proper wedding.
[edit] April 26, 1982
Woo had an argument with his live-in girlfriend in the afternoon of April 26, 1982. Enraged, he left the house and went to the police armory, where he began consuming large amounts of whiskey. He became moderately drunk, raided the police armory of its weapons and built a personal arsenal. Woo then stole a single high-powered rifle and some grenades and left the armory. It was by this point around dinner time. He walked from house to house, and abused his position as a police officer to make people feel safe and gain entry to the home. Then he shot the victims, or killed the entire family with a grenade. He continued this pattern for the next eight hours, and into the early morning hours of April 27.
When Woo had shot a certain number of people in a village, he ran to another village and started killing. Eventually he had been through five villages in Uiryeong-gun. In the early hours of April 27, Woo took his final two grenades and strapped them to his body. He grabbed three people as he set the fuse of the grenades. They became his final victims, as he blew himself up, killing the three he had taken hostage and finally ending the world's worst spree killing.
[edit] Resignation of the Interior Minister
The Interior Minister of South Korea, Suh Chung Hwa, believed that he had failed at his job of protecting the peace because of the incident, and in shame resigned his post. As a result, Roh Tae-woo was appointed as the new Interior Minister.
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