Schizophrenic's midnight excavator rampage tears village apart

By Park Sae-jin Posted : June 5, 2017, 15:19 Updated : June 5, 2017, 15:20

[Jeonnam Hwasun Police Agency]


An old couple could do nothing but run for their lives from the living quarters of their supermarket when an excavator stormed into the building and started tearing down its walls and furniture in the middle of the night.

The incident took place in Iyang, a small village some 301 kilometers (187 miles) south of Seoul, at around 1:20 am (1620 GMT) Sunday, when a 46-year-old mentally ill man, identified by police as his surname Yang, stole an excavator, parked near the scene, and went on rampage.
 

[Jeonnam Hwasun Police Agency]


As if tearing down the supermarket was not enough, Yang carried on, destroying a sedan and a truck parked next to the store. Police turned up to stop him but he did not give up saying "Just shoot and kill me!", according to Yonhap News Agency. Officers subdued Yang with stun guns.

Yang, a resident in a town about 20 kilometers away from Iyang who has suffered from schizophrenia for 15 years, told police that in an auditory hallucination, he was ordered by a god to catch three murderers hiding out in the supermarket.
 

[Jeonnam Hwasun Police Agency]


Yang also talked about nuclear bombs going off in his town. Yonhap quoted a police officer as saying: "We've found out that Yang was a loner. He had been suffering from mental illness for a long time but he did not take any medications." 

Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
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