A video showing a tenacious Korean traffic cop clinging to the windshield of a fleeing suspect’s car has gone viral.
On Sunday evening at 9:30 traffic cop Kim Hyun-cheol, 33, spotted a Hyundai Trajet making an illegal U-turn on a downtown Busan street and waved it over. As he began writing up a traffic ticket in front of the violator’s car, the driver stepped on the gas. Kim jumped on the hood of the car.
“He looked as if he was afraid of something,” Kim said later. “He only opened his window an inch.”
The driver, surnamed Jeong, sped through the streets with Kim clinging to the roof of his car with his feet at the base of the windshield.
In an effort at dislodging the tenacious traffic cop Jeong executed a series of swerving and sudden-braking maneuvers. In a scene reminiscent of action-suspense thrillers, Kim managed to hang on for a wild 25-minute drive through Busan.
“I hung on the car persistently because I suspected him to be a criminal,” Kim told reporters later. “I thought I might be killed for the first 10 minutes. But I hung on with my willpower because I really wanted to arrest this guy.”
Jeong eventually found himself caught in traffic. He tried driving in the opposing lanes, but was trapped by a taxi. Then police cars pulled up to cut him off on the sides and back, completely blocking Jeong’s movement. The stubborn suspect then jumped out of his car and made a dash. He was finally caught after being chased for about a block to an underpass of the Yeonje Metro station in the Yeonje District.
A part of Kim’s wild ride was captured by a video camera installed on the back of a taxi. The video showing Kim clinging to the windshield was uploaded onto Youtube. It was retweeted over 400,000 times by early Thursday morning. The reactions on social networking sites mostly praised Kim as a heroic cop worthy of starring in an action flick.
As it turns out Kim is highly trained in various martial arts, including Taekwondo. During the windshield ride he suffered bruised on the chest and legs which are expected to take about three weeks to heal.
“I didn’t tell the story to my family,” Kim said, “because I didn’t want them to worry about my injuries.”
As for the suspect Jeong, 33, the Yeonje Police Precinct learned that he was on a wanted list for illegal drug use. He was detained and will likely face new charges of resisting arrest, reckless driving and deadly assault on a police officer, among other charges.
