South Korean court convicts 23-year-old man in car-and-stabbing attack that killed 2 and injured 12

A South Korean judge has convicted a man of murder for an unprovoked car-and-stabbing rampage that killed two people and injured 12 others in a city near Seoul last year

South Korea Stabbing

A South Korean judge convicted a man of murder Thursday for an unprovoked car-and-stabbing rampage that killed two people and injured 12 others in a city near Seoul last year.

Prosecutors had sought a death penalty for 23-year-old Choi Won-jong, who was arrested in August after he rammed his car into pedestrians in a bustling leisure district in Seongnam and then stepped out of the crashed vehicle and stabbed people at random at a nearby shopping mall. Two of the five people who were hit by the car died of their injuries, while nine others were treated for stab wounds.

Judge Kang Hyun-koo of the Suwon District Court’s Seongnam branch gave Choi a life prison sentence, rejecting defense lawyers’ appeal for leniency based on the defendant's supposed mental health problems. The court also ordered Choi to wear an electronic tracking device for 30 years,

The judge said Choi’s crime “created fear that anyone could become a target of a terror attack in a public place” and found him guilty on charges of murder, attempted murder, and premediated murder.

Choi has seven days to appeal.

Choi’s attacks came weeks after a knife-wielding man stabbed at least four pedestrians on a street in South Korea's capital, killing one person. While the country tightly controls gun possession, there aren’t meaningful restrictions applying to knives.

Following the incident in Seongnam, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol increased the deployment of law enforcement officials in crowded areas and expanded the monitoring of social media and online message boards to detect threats.