The Justice Ministry said Tuesday it placed a U.S. soldier who shot a BB gun at pedestrians in downtown Seoul in pre-trial detention after the U.S. military handed him over to South Korean officials.

The 26-year-old staff sergeant, surnamed Lopez, was arrested on charges 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. Lopez had been in U.S. custody until Tuesday.

Accepting the Seoul government’s request, the U.S. Forces Korea handed over Lopez to the Seoul Correctional Service around 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, the ministry said, adding that he will be detained for up to 30 days pending his trial.

Earlier, a Seoul court issued a detention warrant for him as part of South Korean legal procedures to try him in the country, citing fear that the soldier might destroy evidence and flee the country.

It marked 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.

The so-called “sympathetic consideration” clause under SOFA requires the USFK and South Korea to give “sympathetic consideration” to each other’s requests for a waiver of jurisdiction.

However, the USFK is under no legal obligation to hand over its soldiers.

The USFK previously handed over suspects in 12 serious crimes, such as murder and rape and other similar cases by giving “sympathetic consideration.”

Lopez allegedly shot the BB gun into the crowded Itaewon district and then fled in a car, along with two other service members ― a 23-year-old private first class and a 22-year-old female specialist ― with the police following in pursuit, police officers said. (Yonhap News)