South Korean police investigating 14-year-old boy as suspect of attack on lawmaker
ABC News
Police say the assailant who repeatedly struck a South Korean lawmaker with a rock was a 14-year-old boy who was sent to a mental health facility Friday
SEOUL, South Korea -- The assailant who repeatedly struck a South Korean lawmaker with a rock as she tried to resist was a 14-year-old boy who was sent to a mental health facility Friday, Seoul police said as they continue to investigate the attack.
The attack Thursday on Bae Hyunjin from the conservative ruling party came just weeks after a man stabbed opposition leader Lee Jae-myung in the neck, and it raised further concerns about the toxic discourse around the country’s intensely polarized politics.
Bae was treated for cuts, and doctors said she avoided serious injury.
Police investigators who interviewed the middle-schooler suspect in the presence of his parents sent him to a hospital early Friday where they plan to continue investigating him, said Cheon Young-gil, an official at Seoul’s Gangnam district police station.
South Korea’s laws allow for emergency admissions in which a person suspected of mental illness can be hospitalized for a maximum three days, based on consent of doctors and police, if there was concern the person could inflict harm on other people or themselves.
