60-Year-Old Sentenced to 1 Year Imprisonment for Shooting Steel Ball and Breaking Window at 31-Story Apartment

A man in his 60s who broke the windows of three neighboring apartments by shooting steel marbles with a slingshot from a high-rise apartment was sentenced to prison.

Judge Hong Jun-seo of the Incheon District Court Criminal Division 5 sentenced A (61), who was indicted in custody on charges of special property damage, to one year in prison at the sentencing hearing held on the 12th.

Judge Hong stated the reason for the sentence, saying, "The crime was a dangerous act that could have caused casualties as it targeted unspecified many people, and it was a crime that damaged residences. However, consideration was given to the fact that all victims reached a settlement."

Earlier, A had applied for bail, requesting to be tried while not detained, but the court rejected it, stating, "There is a risk of flight."

At the prosecution's closing argument held on the 19th of last month, they demanded a three-year prison sentence for A, saying, "If a resident had been hit by the steel marble, a serious outcome could have occurred."

A man in his 60s shot steel balls and broke a window in a high-rise apartment in Incheon
[Image source=Yonhap News]

On March 10, A was arrested and indicted on charges of repeatedly damaging the windows of three neighboring apartments in the adjacent building by shooting 8mm steel marbles with a metal slingshot from his 31st-floor apartment in Songdo International City, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon.

All the affected households were on the 20th floor or higher, and in one 29th-floor apartment, a 3cm hole was found in the outer glass of two 3mm-thick glass panes.

In the police investigation, he claimed, "I was curious about how far the steel marbles would actually fly, so I shot them out of curiosity," and "I did not aim at any specific household."

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