The mother of a victim of the Ansan hostage case had requested urgent help from the police days before her daughters were attacked by their stepfather, the authorities said Friday, with the police being criticized for missing signs of the incident.

Kim Sang-hun, 47, was arrested Tuesday for killing his wife’s ex-husband and his stepdaughter while holding the four hostage in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. Kim demanded that his wife come to see him during the five-hour standoff. The suspect committed the crime because he suspected that his estranged wife had rekindled her relationship with her ex-husband, the police said.

Four days before the hostage crisis, Kim’s wife had asked the police to arrest Kim, claiming that her husband had stabbed her in the thigh with a knife the day before, investigators said.

Under the current antidomestic violence measures, the police are allowed to separate an offender from family members in an emergency.

The counseling police officer, however, had rejected her demand, saying that it was impossible to nab Kim since he was not caught at the crime scene. Instead, the police officer had advised her to file a suit, the investigators added.

Receiving no urgent support, the wife had taken refuge at a motel with her children, and then moved to her ex-husband’s house, where the tragedy occurred, they added.

The police said they had launched an internal probe into whether the concerned police station had overlooked the wife’s request for help. They also vowed to consider revamping the counseling system to better deal with emergency situations.

Meanwhile, Kim confessed that he had sexually harassed his 16-year-old stepdaughter before stabbing her to death, the police said. The investigators also uncovered that he had committed a lewd act in front of the victim, and then attempted to rape her.

While the attacker admitted having taken them hostage, he blamed others for the deaths of the victims.

“This is unfair. I’m also a victim of this case,” he told the media before being taken into custody on Thursday. “The authorities are trying to silence me. My wife ignored her daughters’ request to be rescued,” he added.

The biological father and his daughter were killed before the police were dispatched to the scene, the authorities said. The other two female hostages were rescued unharmed.

By Lee Hyun-jeong (rene@heraldcorp.com)