On March 1, 2012, a robbery was reported at Saehan Bank in Buena Park, Calif., around 11 a.m. Myung-Jae Kim, the suspect, was a 55-year-old man who walked into the bank with a gun. It was reported that he also carried multiple pipe bombs.
When one of the employees at the bank asked Kim if they could leave, Kim allowed everyone to leave except the manager, Michelle Kwon. Around 2 p.m., during negotiations with the police, Kim, armed with his gun, tried to exit the bank with the hostage. Soon afterwards, gunshots were fired; Kim and some police officers were injured, but the bank manager was not hurt. The manager was rescued, and Kim was taken to the hospital.
However, this incident was not a typical bank robbery: Kim did not go to Saehan Bank to commit theft, but he went to face Michelle Kwon, with whom he had previously had disputes with. Before Michelle Kwon became the manager at Saehan Bank, she worked at another bank where Kim had deposited his money. However, Kim explained that he was met with a situation in which some of his money disappeared. He reported that about $250,000 was gone from his account at the bank. When he questioned the bank employee, who was, at that time, Michelle Kwon, the employee just told him that he must have made a mistake. Kwon said that the bank is not liable for his situation, which made Kim frustrated and upset. Kim reported that the bank did not try to help him and that he just could not believe that his money that he earned for his hard work suddenly disappeared.
When Michelle Kwon moved to Saehan Bank, Kim decided to go talk to her again and find out the truth. He said that all he needed was the truth, not even the money. Hence, he chose to use his gun to menace Kwon to tell him the truth.
As a result, the police decided to investigate further on the whereabouts of Kim’s money.
