U.S. soldier indicted for role in BB gun shooting

 An American solider stationed in South Korea has been indicted for his alleged involvment in last month's BB gun shooting in a crowded Seoul nightlife district, prosecutors said Thursday.

  Prosecutors said the soldier, a staff sergeant surnamed Lopez, has been arrested and charged with obstructing police in the execution of their duties and with breaching traffic laws.

According to prosecutors, Lopez allegedly shot a BB gun at pedestrians in downtown Seoul last month and later led South Korean police on a high-speed car chase, which left one police officer injured.

   Another U.S. soldier, a female specialist whose identity has been withheld, was indicted without physical detention for her involvement. A third U.S. soldier, a private first class who sustained a gunshot wound during the chase, was not indicted.

   Last week, the justice ministry placed Lopez in pre-trial detention after the U.S. military handed him over to South Korean authorities.

   Earlier, a Seoul court had issued a detention warrant for Lopez as part of South Korean legal procedures to try him here on the grounds that he was a flight risk who could also destroy evidence.

   This was the first time that South Korea has asked the U.S. Forces Korea to turn over a U.S. soldier implicated in a general crime in accordance with a clause in the Status of Forces Agreement that governs the legal status of the 28,500 U.S. soldiers stationed here.

   The relevant clause under SOFA requires the USFK and South Korea to give "sympathetic consideration" to each other's requests for a waiver of jurisdiction.

   The USFK previously handed over suspects in 12 serious crimes, such as murder and rape and other similar cases by giving "sympathetic consideration." The USFK, though, is not legally obligated to hand over its personnel.

   Prosecutors said on Thursday that the Lopez case could serve as an important precedent in future investigations into incidents involving U.S. soldiers by South Korean authorities. (Yonhap)