2015 Sejong and Hwaseong shootings

Last updated
2015 Hwaseong shooting
Location Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea
Date25–27 February 2015
Attack type
Spree shooting, mass murder, murder-suicide
WeaponsFirearms
Deaths8 (including both perpetrators)
Injured2 (1 by gunfire)
PerpetratorsTwo unidentified men

The 2015 Sejong and Hwaseong shootings were two separate shooting incidents that occurred in South Korea on 25 and 27 February 2015 in the cities of Sejong and Hwaseong, respectively. After each shooting, the gunmen committed suicide.

Both incidents led South Korea to immediate adoption of GPS monitoring of firearms. Since the rarity of shooting incidents in South Korea are evident, they garner international news coverage; the two unrelated spree shootings were widely reported, as was the adoption of the gun control measure. [1]

Shootings

At 8 a.m. on 25 February (23:00 GMT Tuesday), in Sejong, South Korea's administrative capital, a gunman shot and killed three people at a convenience store, then committed suicide at another location. [2] The three victims were the gunman's ex-girlfriend's father, brother, and current boyfriend. [3] Keeping a gun in the home in South Korea is restricted; the shooter checked out two shotguns from a police precinct two hours before. [2]

On 27 February, another shooting occurred in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, South Korea, where an elderly man shot and killed three people—his brother, his sister-in-law, and a policeman—and injured another police officer before committing suicide. He had checked out a hunting rifle at a police station before driving to his brother's house. A niece of the gunman was injured jumping from a second-story window to escape. [4] [5]

The incident caused South Korea's Yonhap News Agency to criticize the nation's gun control regulations for hunting weapons, and led immediately to gun control regulation changes. [1] [6] On March 2, the first business day following the Friday incident, South Korea's National Emergency Management Agency, its National Police Agency, and the ruling Saenuri Party agreed to require GPS monitoring of guns in the nation. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seung-Hui Cho</span> South Korean mass murderer (1984–2007)

Seung-Hui Cho was a South Korean mass murderer responsible for the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007. Cho killed 32 people and wounded 17 others with two semi-automatic pistols on April 16, 2007, at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. This killing is the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, and was at the time the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. A senior-level undergraduate student at the university, Cho died by suicide after police breached the doors of Virginia Tech's Norris Hall which Cho had locked with heavy chains, where most of the shooting had taken place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sello mall shooting</span> Mass shooting at a mall in Espoo, Finland

The Sello mall shooting occurred on the morning of 31 December 2009 shortly after 10:08 local time at the Prisma hypermarket in Sello mall, located in the Leppävaara district of Espoo, Finland. Ibrahim Shkupolli, Albanian born in Yugoslavia but had lived in Finland for many years, shot three men and one woman who all worked at Prisma. Before the shooting, he had killed his ex-girlfriend at her home. After the shooting, Shkupolli left the mall and killed himself in his own apartment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westroads Mall shooting</span> 2007 mass shooting in Omaha, Nebraska

On December 5, 2007, 19-year-old Robert Hawkins shot and killed eight people and wounded four others in a Von Maur department store at Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, before committing suicide by shooting himself in the head. It was the deadliest mass murder in Nebraska since the rampage of Charles Starkweather in 1958. It is also the deadliest mass shooting in Nebraska history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cumbria shootings</span> 2010 shooting spree in Cumbria, England

The Cumbria shootings were a shooting spree that occurred on 2 June 2010 when a lone gunman, taxi driver Derrick Bird, killed twelve people and injured eleven others in Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Along with the 1987 Hungerford massacre and the 1996 Dunblane school massacre, it is one of the worst criminal acts involving firearms in British history. The shootings ended when Bird killed himself in a wooded area after abandoning his car in the village of Boot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 Northumbria Police manhunt</span> Major police operation in July 2010

The 2010 Northumbria Police manhunt was a major police operation conducted across Tyne and Wear and Northumberland with the objective of apprehending fugitive Raoul Moat. After killing one person and wounding two others in a two-day shooting spree in July 2010, the 37-year-old ex-prisoner went on the run for nearly a week. The manhunt concluded when Moat died by suicide having shot himself near the town of Rothbury, Northumberland, following a six-hour standoff with armed police officers under the command of the Northumbria Police.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mass shooting</span> Firearm violence incident

A mass shooting is a violent crime in which one or more attackers kill or injure multiple individuals simultaneously using a firearm. There is no widely accepted definition, and different organizations tracking such incidents use different criteria. Mass shootings are often characterized by the indiscriminate targeting of victims in a non-combat setting, and thus the term generally excludes gang violence, shootouts and warfare. Mass shootings may be done for personal or psychological reasons, but have also been used as a terrorist tactic. The perpetrator of an ongoing mass shooting may be referred to as an active shooter.

This is a list of terrorist incidents in Pakistan in 2012. Pakistan has faced numerous attacks by insurgents as a result of the ongoing War in North-West Pakistan by the Pakistani military against militant groups, part of the War on Terror. At the same time, there have also been numerous drone attacks in Pakistan carried out by the United States which exclusively target members of militant groups along the Afghan border regions.

On the morning of August 26, 2015, news reporter Alison Parker and photojournalist Adam Ward, both employees of CBS affiliate WDBJ in Roanoke, Virginia, United States, were fatally shot while conducting a live television interview near Smith Mountain Lake in Moneta. They were interviewing Vicki Gardner, executive director of the local chamber of commerce, when all three were attacked by a gunman in a mass shooting. Parker, age 24, and Ward, age 27, died at the scene, while Gardner survived.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 Umpqua Community College shooting</span> 2015 mass shooting in Roseburg, Oregon, US

A shooting occurred on October 1, 2015, at the Umpqua Community College campus near Roseburg, Oregon, United States. Chris Harper-Mercer, a 26-year-old student who was enrolled at the school, fatally shot an assistant professor and eight students in a classroom, and injured eight others. Roseburg police detectives responded to the incident and engaged Harper-Mercer in a brief shootout. After being wounded, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. The mass shooting is the deadliest in Oregon's modern history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 Parramatta shooting</span> Terror attack in 2015 in Sydney, Australia

On 2 October 2015, Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar, a 15-year-old boy, shot and killed Curtis Cheng, an unarmed police civilian finance worker, outside the New South Wales Police Force headquarters in Parramatta, Sydney, Australia. Jabar was subsequently shot and killed by special constables who were protecting the headquarters. As of 27 April 2016, four other men have been charged in relation to the shooting, among whom Raban Alou was convicted of terrorism offences in March 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 Spalding shooting</span> Violent murder-suicide in Lincolnshire

On 19 July 2016, a shooting occurred at the Castle Sports Complex in the town centre of Spalding in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. Three people, including the perpetrator, were killed in the shooting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Lauderdale airport shooting</span> Mass shooting in Broward County, Florida

On January 6, 2017, a mass shooting occurred at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in Broward County, Florida, United States, near the baggage claim in Terminal 2. Five people were killed while six others were injured in the shooting. About 36 people sustained injuries in the ensuing panic. Esteban Santiago-Ruiz, who flew in to the airport from Alaska and committed the shooting with a Walther PPS 9mm semi-automatic pistol, was taken into custody by a Broward County Sheriff's Office (BSO) deputy within 85 seconds after he started shooting. The shooting from start to finish lasted 70–80 seconds. Santiago was later diagnosed with schizophrenia and pleaded guilty to avoid possible execution. On August 17, 2018, Santiago was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences plus 120 years in prison.

A mass shooting occurred on Danforth Avenue in the Greektown neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, Canada on the night of July 22, 2018. Faisal Hussain killed two people and wounded thirteen using a Smith & Wesson M&P .40-calibre handgun. He died by suicide after a shootout with Toronto Police Service (TPS) officers. Despite a year long investigation, authorities were unable to determine a motive for the shooting. They noted that Hussain had mental health issues and a long time obsession with violence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 Nova Scotia attacks</span> Series of murders in Canada

On April 18 and 19, 2020, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman committed multiple shootings and set fires at sixteen locations in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, killing twenty-two people and injuring three others before he was shot and killed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in the community of Enfield. The attacks are the deadliest shooting rampage in Canadian history, exceeding the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, where fourteen women were killed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plymouth shooting</span> 2021 mass shooting in Plymouth, England

On 12 August 2021, a mass shooting occurred in Keyham, Plymouth, England. The gunman, 22-year-old Jake Davison from Plymouth, shot and killed five people, including his mother and a 3-year-old girl. Davison also injured two others before fatally shooting himself. The inquest jury returned a verdict of unlawful killing of all of the victims.

References

  1. 1 2 "Could South Korea's gun control offer any lessons?". Asia News. Retrieved 2024-01-23.
  2. 1 2 "Three killed in South Korea shooting". BBC News . 25 February 2015.
  3. Tae-hoon, Lee (25 February 2015). "Gunman kills ex-girlfriend's family and boyfriend in Korea". The Korean Observer. Retrieved 21 February 2017.
  4. The Korea Herald (27 February 2015). "Four killed in Hwaseong shooting". The Korea Herald . Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  5. "BBC News - Gunman kills three in South Korea". BBC News . 27 February 2015. Retrieved 1 March 2015.
  6. "South Korea to Tighten Gun Control Amid Frequent Shooting Rampages". Daily Times . March 1, 2015. Archived from the original on July 6, 2015. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
  7. Kim Yon-se (March 2, 2015). "Police to track guns via GPS". The Korea Herald .