Woo had an argument with his live-in girlfriend, Chun Mal-soon, on the afternoon of April 26, 1982, after she had woken him by swatting a fly on his chest. Enraged, he left the house and went to the police station, where he reported for duty at 4 pm, and began drinking heavily. At about 7:30 pm Woo returned home, punched and kicked his girlfriend and smashed the furniture, before making his way to the armory. As the other officers were at a meeting, he managed unnoticed to gather an arsenal, consisting of two M2 carbines, 180 rounds of ammunition, and seven hand grenades.
At approximately 9:30 pm Woo began shooting passers-by in a marketplace in the village of Torongni, where he also wounded Chun Mal-soon, who had gone to investigate, after hearing shots in the village.
His next stop was at the post office in the nearby village of Kungryu, where he killed three phone operators and cut off the telephone lines to prevent others from calling emergency services.
From that point on he proceeded from village to village, taking advantage of his position as a police officer to gain entry to the houses and shoot their inhabitants. That way Woo managed to kill 18 people in the village of Ungye, and 24 more in the village of Pyongchon.
At one point, he ordered a 16-year-old boy to get him a soft drink from a grocery store. After getting what he had asked for, Woo shot the boy and his family.
Woo shot most of his victims, but in one case he killed an entire family with a grenade. Although police were alerted one hour after the beginning of the killing spree, he avoided capture and continued his rampage for a full eight hours.
In the early hours of April 27, after rampaging through five villages in Uiryeong county, Woo took his final two grenades and strapped them to his body. He hid in the farmhouse belonging to 68-year-old Suh In-Su, holding him and his family captive, when police finally caught up with him.
As police forces were closing in, he set the grenades' fuses, killing himself and three hostages. Mr. Suh himself survived gravely injured.
Altogether, with a toll of 57 dead and 35 injured, the rampage of Woo Bum-kon was the worst killing spree in modern times before the Norway attacks of July 22, 2011.
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