The UC Riverside student who police say illegally had an assault rifle in his campus apartment was charged with two felony crimes on Monday, May 6, and court documents revealed Tuesday what the university had not: That the defendant, Christopher Jung-Yoon Kim, was a civilian employee of its Police Department.
Kim, 22, was charged with possession of an assault weapon and bringing a firearm into a school zone. The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, in filing the charges, alleged an aggravating factor of bringing an assault weapon onto a college campus “which indicates a serious danger to society.”
Superior Court records do not list an attorney for Kim, who has not been given a date to appear before a judge. A phone number could not be located for Kim. He was arrested at an apartment in La Crescenta just before 11 p.m. Monday. He was booked at Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside about 11 p.m. Monday and was released Tuesday morning after posting $10,000 bail.
Details of the investigation were contained in a sworn statement written to obtain an arrest warrant.
The statement said Kim works for the Highlander Safety Team, which is a paid, unarmed and non-sworn group that assists UCR police with patrols, special events and security details and provides escorts. The university did not note Kim’s employment with the Police Department during interviews with UCR officials on Sunday and Monday or in a news release issued Tuesday morning.
UCR spokesman John Warren on Tuesday afternoon confirmed Kim’s employment and said Kim was suspended from his job as well as the campus.
The investigation began when a single, unused rifle cartridge was found in a common area at the on-campus North District apartments on Friday, Warren said.
The detective who wrote the statement said records showed that Kim owned a semi-automatic Aero Precision frame that was purchased at a Riverside gun store. He interviewed Kim on Friday at the police station.
“Kim stated he knew it was illegal to have a gun on a university campus,” the statement said.
Police then searched Kim’s apartment and found the rifle in a bedroom closet, the detective wrote. The rifle was illegal, he wrote, because of its flash suppressor and telescoping stock.
Police also found a journal in which Kim had drawn a person shooting a rifle at another person and a crowd watching. Kim told the detective that the drawings were “just doodles.” He was not charged with a crime for those.
John Hall, a district attorney’s spokesman, said the investigation is continuing.
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