Unlicensed Drunk Driver in His 40s Shoots Elementary School Student Dead with Six Air Rifle Shots to Hide Car Accident

1. Overview

On the night of June 4, 2009, in Ilgok-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju, an unlicensed drunk driver struck an elementary school student with a van, then took the child to Damyang, shot him with an air rifle, and abandoned his body in an attempt to conceal the accident. The case is commonly known as the “Gwangju Elementary School Student Air Rifle Murder Case.” A post on FM Korea featured what appeared to be screenshots from a webtoon based on the case, titled “The Truth About the Elementary School Student Who Died in a Traffic Accident.”

The suspect, Mr. Lee (48), initially claimed that the child had died instantly at the scene after being hit by the car and that he had dumped the body in Damyang. However, witness accounts, hospital CCTV footage, and the autopsy findings contradicted his account, and it emerged that the child had been well enough to walk after the accident. The central fact of the case is that the child who was said to have died had actually been alive and even made it to a hospital emergency room. In August of the same year, Lee was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Gwangju District Court.

2. The Accident and Trip to the Hospital

According to Munhwa Ilbo, at around 8:30 p.m. on June 4, Lee was driving a van while intoxicated on a road in Ilgok-dong when he struck elementary school student A with the front bumper. A was returning from a taekwondo studio. Yonhap News reported that the accident occurred directly in front of the studio, in an area lined with shops. Lee was driving without a license at the time.

According to the police account reported by The Hankyoreh, A suffered a head injury but was able to walk on his own. Witnesses, including an 18-year-old girl who saw the scene, said that the child ran off crying in shock, touching the right side of his head, which was bleeding slightly. Lee chased A, who had run about 20 meters, and put him in the van. Yonhap News reported that at around 8:40 p.m., ten minutes after the accident, Lee took A to the emergency room of a nearby general hospital. Hospital CCTV footage showed the two walking.

The problem arose at the hospital. When medical staff advised Lee that A would need to go to a larger hospital for an MRI, Lee left with him at around 8:42 p.m. without having him treated. Police believe Lee decided to commit the crime around this time. He reportedly told police that he had been obsessed with the need to obtain a driver’s license again.

3. Murder and Disposal of the Body at a Reservoir

After leaving the hospital, Lee put A in the passenger seat and drove to Damyang. Yonhap News reported that CCTV footage showed Lee’s vehicle passing over Dodong Pass in Jangdeung-dong at around 8:57 p.m. Police said that A pleaded, “Please save me,” on the way, but Lee ignored him and carried out the crime. The court also found that Lee beat the child, who was pleading for his life, and shot him.

According to Munhwa Ilbo, Lee drove to a reservoir in Geumhyeon-ri, Goseo-myeon, Damyang County, about 12 kilometers from the accident scene, and shot A inside the vehicle with a hunting air rifle. Police said six lead pellets were fired; the autopsy found that four were lodged in the body and two had passed through it. Gunshot wounds were found at seven locations, including the chest, side, and ear. Lee then abandoned the body in a wooded area or ravine in Nam-myeon, Damyang County, about 10 kilometers from the scene.

The Hankyoreh reported that Lee used an air rifle he kept in his vehicle.

4. Runaway Investigation and a Tip from an Acquaintance

A’s parents reported him missing to police in the early hours of June 5, saying that he had not returned after leaving his taekwondo studio. According to Yonhap News, police made inquiries around the studio and the family home but could not find anyone who had seen A. They began investigating the case as a runaway, considering it likely that he had run away after being scolded by his parents. This prompted criticism that police may have neglected to investigate the possibility of a traffic accident or criminal victimization.

Meanwhile, rumors had spread around the accident scene that “a child was hit by a van and then put back in the vehicle and taken somewhere.” One account even claimed that “the child was bleeding a little from the head but got up just fine, and since the driver helped him into the car, we thought he was taking him to the hospital.” Yonhap News noted that Lee himself consistently said there had been someone who witnessed the accident, suggesting that the witness should not have been difficult to find.

The breakthrough came not from the police investigation but from a tip by an acquaintance. According to Munhwa Ilbo, Lee returned to Ilgok-dong on the night of the crime and confessed what he had done to an acquaintance, B. B reportedly contacted police several days later after seeing a missing-person flyer distributed by A’s family. Police arrested Lee on June 9 and, after searching the locations he identified, found A’s body on June 11.

5. False Statement and Confession

During the initial police questioning, Lee claimed that A had died instantly at the scene after being hit by the car and that he had dumped the body in Damyang. Lee was in custody on suspicion of causing the child’s death in a traffic accident, and this false statement confused the investigation. However, the autopsy found lead pellets lodged in the body and multiple gunshot wounds, making his account inconsistent. When police confronted him with the autopsy findings, Lee confessed on the afternoon of June 12 that he had killed A with an air rifle, and a murder charge was added.

Police later used witness accounts and hospital CCTV footage to confirm that A had suffered only minor injuries in the accident and had been able to walk. Lee also acknowledged this. During a reconstruction of the crime on June 13, Lee reenacted the accident and the shooting at the reservoir. On June 15, the Gwangju Bukbu Police Station announced that Lee had said he committed the crime because of his obsession with his driver’s license and livelihood.

According to Yonhap News, Lee, who worked in interior decorating, had his license revoked in March 2005 for drunk driving. In September 2007, he was caught driving without a license and barred from taking the licensing exam for two years. He would have been eligible to obtain a license again in September 2009, but if this drunk-driving incident had been discovered, he would have faced criminal penalties and found it difficult to obtain a license. Lee reportedly said, “I thought I couldn’t live without a driver’s license, even though I hadn’t properly graduated from elementary school.”

6. Trial

According to YTN, the Gwangju District Court sentenced Lee to life imprisonment on August 27, 2009. The court said it imposed a severe sentence because Lee had planned the crime and had acted with extreme brutality, beating and shooting an elementary school student who was pleading for his life. The FM Korea post stated that Lee is still serving his sentence.

7. Authenticity Debate

The central issue is whether A was already dead at the time of the accident or was still alive and able to walk before Lee killed him. Lee’s initial account conflicted with the circumstances established by police.

7.1. Lee’s Initial Claim That A Died Immediately After the Accident

During the initial police questioning, Lee claimed that A had died instantly at the scene and that he had dumped the body in Damyang. This account confused the investigation, and Lee was in custody on suspicion of causing the child’s death in a traffic accident. The webtoon posted on FM Korea includes dialogue suggesting that a traffic-related death does not result in a particularly severe punishment.

7.2. Evidence That A Was Alive

However, Lee’s account did not match the other evidence. Witnesses said that the child ran away crying and touching his head, and hospital CCTV footage showed Lee and A walking. The fact that A went to a hospital emergency room with minor injuries is also incompatible with the claim that he died at the scene. Most decisively, lead pellets were lodged in his body, and gunshot wounds were found at seven locations. A person who had died instantly in a traffic accident could not have air-rifle pellets in his body. The circumstances of Lee’s confession after being confronted with the autopsy findings support this conclusion.

7.3. Remaining Questions

Once Lee’s account was exposed as false, the claim that A had died immediately after the accident effectively lost credibility. There was also criticism that the direction of the investigation would have changed significantly if police had properly canvassed the area and heard witness accounts. Police responded that they had made extensive inquiries but had been unable to find witnesses. Records also remain inconsistent: reports give A’s age as either 10 or 11, and describe the location where his body was found as either a wooded area or a ravine.

8. Trivia

• The FM Korea post features several scenes from a black-and-white webtoon that appears to be based on the case. These include a scene in which a character who appears to be medical staff says, “The child seemed fine until then,” and one in which a character asks, “Why is there no body?” The post introduced it under the title “The Truth About the Elementary School Student Who Died in a Traffic Accident.”
• One of Yonhap News’s related articles was titled “Air-Rifle Murderer of Elementary School Student Calmly Reenacts Crime Scene.”
• A YouTube video by Diggle related to tvN’s Crime Puzzle 2 was uploaded under the title “To the Point of Walking on His Own…”