According to Yonhap News, Kim confessed to the police, "I was broke, and I thought that the people around me were possessed by the devil so that's why I committed the crime." 

One of the witnesses who happened to pass by the scene stated, "As I was driving down the road, I saw a middle-aged man hurl an object from a truck and then start beating a woman on her head with a piece of lumber so I got out of my vehicle. When I approached him to try to restrain him, he immediately ran away but other passersby managed to capture him."