South Korea’s Justice Ministry said Thursday that it has sent a request to the U.S. Forces Korea to relinquish jurisdiction over one of its soldiers allegedly involved in a BB gun shooting incident in downtown Seoul last month.

The 26-year-old staff sergeant, surnamed Lopez, is accused of shooting the BB gun at pedestrians and leading police on a high-speed car chase in the crowded multicultural Itaewon district in Seoul on March 2, leaving one South Korean police officer injured.

As part of legal procedures to try Lopez in the country, a Seoul court on Wednesday issued a warrant to place him in pre-trial detention. After receiving the detention warrant, the ministry sent the request to the USFK to turn over Lopez, who currently remains under U.S. custody.

It marks the first time for South Korea to ask the USFK to turn over the jurisdiction of a U.S. soldier implicated in a general crime, in accordance with a relevant clause in the Status-of-Forces Agreement that governs the legal status of the 28,500 U.S. soldiers stationed in South Korea. (Yonhap News)