Shot dead by own security guard

December 25

A rather shocking development back in the third of my worlds, is that my Korean neighbor of 10 years was shot dead on Dec 23 by our own security guard. It is rather a puzzle as to what happened, or rather WHY it happened. Neighbors said that the Korean had returned a bit after 9:30pm. The security guard was apparently sleeping so the neighbor had to get out of his car and open the gate himself. He was quite irate about that and may have kicked the guard post or slammed the log book down or something. He drove his car down to his apartment and hit a rock that someone had left in the drive to wedge their tire. That of course made him even more irate so he picked up the rock and then went back up towards the gate and started shouting at the security guard. People say that there was shouting and yelling for about 5 minutes and them bam! The man’s 26 year old son ran out to check out what happened and called for a neighbor to accompany him. They found his father laying in a lake of blood in front of one of the other apartments. He had been shot in the chest with a shot gun at rather close range. The son and his cousin took him to the hospital but he was dead on arrival. The security guard vanished. The Korean was said to have been drinking, as he often did at night. But the security guard was also said to have been drinking which he shouldn’t have been, and he certainly shouldn’t have been asleep at that time. No one actually saw if one of them hit or kicked the other and the Korean wasn’t armed.

The 911 phone line was apparently closed for the holidays but somebody managed to call the police. The police were over later that night and the next day. The security agency was over as was the owner of the building. We heard that the Korean embassy may get involved if the security guard isn’t found. Nobody seems to satisfied as to WHY the man was shot.

The people living in the apartment he died in front of are the ones that ended up having to clean up the mess. They have been burning candles on the spot. I understand that the local belief is that the soul hangs around the spot for about 40 days after death so maybe they will burn candles that long?

Apparently shot ricocheted around the front of our apartment, there are “burns” on the wall and a big chip out of the plastic front of the motorbike parked out front as well as a hole in the seat. It scared the daylights out of our cat who was probably sitting on the bike as is his custom.

It’s really a puzzle because the Korean had lived here for 10 years, in fact he was the one who pushed to have a security guard in the first place. He did have a temper. In the past we have heard him slamming things and breaking things in his apartment when angry at his wife or kids, though not recently. But I had never heard him yell at others. That particular security guard had been here three years and always seemed pleasant, and laid back and easy-going. Neighbors near the guard house said he had in fact apologized to the Korean for being asleep so it is unclear why the matter progressed any further. The security agency said that the guard may have been having some personal problems recently and suggested that the Korean may have appeared threatening.

It doesn’t really make sense. But one could safely conclude that it
is unwise to argue with an armed man.

PS The guard finally turned himself in and last I heard will be tried for manslaughter. When asked why he didn't shoot in the air if he thought the Korean was out of control- he said he just didn't think.