By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

South Korea’s national police are looking for an ex-convict who stabbed two police officers to death in western Seoul Sunday night as they attempted to arrest him on battery charges.

Police on Monday said that they were also questioning the fugitive’s friend who was present at the scene of the stabbing. The friend was presumed to be an accomplice in a previous incident involving violence.

Police said Shim Jae-ho, 32, and Lee Jae-hyon, 27, both assigned to Sobu Police Station in western Seoul, died of multiple stab wounds on their way to a nearby hospital.

They went to a coffee shop in Mapo-gu after being told the suspect, identified as Lee Hak-man, 35, would be meeting a woman he had assaulted.

Lee, an ex-convict with 10 previous criminal records, was suspected of assaulting his girlfriend at a motel in Unpyong-gu, northwestern Seoul, on July 29, when she refused to meet him.

When the police raided the coffee shop, the suspect Lee stabbed the two officers in the chest with a knife he was carrying. Another police officer was outside to prevent Lee from fleeing, but had to attend to the attacked officers.

Lee then fled driving a taxi and police lost track of him in Tongdaemun-gu. The cab was found in Singil-dong on Monday morning in southwestern Seoul.

The police said the three police officers did not carry guns but brought only truncheons, as Lee was not a murder suspect and the coffee shop was an open place.

``Killing police officers is an utter defiance of authorities. We’ll make every effort to catch the suspect,’’ Huh Joon-young, chief superintendent general of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, said.

``There are occasions that police are not able to carry guns in urgent situations due to strict regulations. We’ll try to strengthen law enforcement authorities and police forces to prevent similar tragic incidents,’’ Huh added.

Police have put Lee on the wanted list and released his photo to the public. They also found his bloodstained trousers near the car, evidence that he changed clothes to avoid attracting attention.

Lee’s friend is reported to have kept watch for Lee at the crime scene. He served a jail sentence with Lee in 1999.

The bodies of the two officers will be buried at a national cemetery as they were killed in the line of duty.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr