Ma Sang-min died last week of a brain hemorrhage after being punched Nov. 30 by Jeremy Frye at Hooker Hill in Itaewon, Seoul, a police officer confirmed on Thursday.

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a Sang-min died on December 10 of a brain hemorrhage after being punched November 30 by Jeremy Frye at Hooker Hill in Itaewon, Seoul, a police officer confirmed on Thursday.

“The autopsy results show that the cause of death was blunt force injury to the head,” the officer at Yongsan Police Station told The Korea Observer.

“It is unlikely that the victim hit his head on the ground when he was knocked down.”

Ma allegedly groped Jenny, Frye’s friend’s girlfriend, which instigated the bar fight that allegedly led to Ma’s death.

“I yelled at him, ‘Don’t touch me,’ and snapped his hand away as it slid and touched my genitals,” she said, noting that Ma sat on an empty chair next to her while she was having a drink with her boyfriend Paul*.

“My boyfriend noticed the situation and became furious.”

Frye’s girlfriend Park Jin-ah dragged Ma to the sexual assault victim for an apology.

“By that time, I was calm and willing to accept an apology as I didn’t want any trouble and he said sorry,” Paul said.

Paul, a long friend of Frye, said that he put his hand out to shake Ma’s, but Ma pulled his finger at an angle.

“It really hurt. I was at him again while Frye was holding me back,” he said.

He claims that Frye, now detained at Nambu Prison in Seoul for manslaughter, tried to stop him fighting Ma.

Some witnesses say the late Ma was extremely drunk when the incident took place on Sunday morning.

This was not the first time that Ma ended up in a brawl at Old Town.

“He was an unruly customer often causing trouble. He had been banned from Old Town and was also kicked out [earlier] that day,” the Old Town janitor said while showing his CCTV system and noting that the fight took place at 10:22 a.m.

The janitor recalls that Ma took off his jacket after being pushed out of the bar by a tall white man, who was not Frye.

Ma lost his temper and tried to re-enter the premises while pointing a metal bar with glass shards at Frye and his friends.

“Ma’s friend stopped him from wielding the bar and threw it away,” the janitor said.

The janitor returned to the office presuming they were merely arguing, something quite ordinary on Hooker Hill. However, he came out again with his supervisor when he saw Frye grab Ma by the collar and push him toward the glass door of the terrace.

Ma’s friend tried unsuccessfully to intervene.

“The foreigner grabbed the Korean guy [Ma] with his right hand and punched him with his left hand while shouting something,” he said.

“He punched him four times. Then when the victim collapsed, he punched him once more with his left hand.”

Even then, the janitor didn’t take it seriously because he thought Frye was not hitting him with his full strength and if he did, the glass door behind him might have broken.

He chalked it up to be another one of the many bar fights he has witnessed over the past seven years while working there.

“There have been so many big fights but no one had ever been seriously injured,” the janitor said.

“The foreigner’s elbow also didn’t move much. If you want to strike someone hard, you would pull your elbow back as much as possible before swinging,” he said.

The janitor said it was evident that Frye had no intention to kill Ma.

Frye returned inside to the bar after hitting Ma. Shortly after, the Janitor realized Ma’s lips had turned blue. It was cold and Ma was not wearing a jacket.

Jenny, who is a nurse, checked Ma’s pulse and realized he needed medical attention.

Within five minutes, an ambulance arrived and took Ma to hospital in a serious condition. A witness in the bar says two police officers arrived at Old Town shortly after but Frye had disappeared.

A police source says Ma’s family received a bill of 50 million won ($45,400) for the 10 days of the medial treatment prior to his death at the Soon Chun Hyang University hospital.

Ma’s family is struggling financially.

Frye has taught English for seven and a half years in Korea and has savings of $10,000. He has not been able to find a lawyer as criminal defense lawyers demand between $20,000 and $30,000 for representation.

An expat in Korea set up a gofundme.com account for Frye’s case but it was shut down by the website shortly after despite raising $1,000.

He claims the explanation given by the crowdfunding website is that they do not allow fundraising campaigns for an alleged perpetrator of a crime.

On Tuesday, a Facebook page, “The Jeremy Frye Fund,” was launched. The person who set up the Facebook page claims that the fundraising campaign is to assist the Ma family pay medical costs as well as for Frye’s trial. You can check out the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SupportFryeFrye.

*Name changed at the request of the source.

**Some interviews contained within were conducted in Korean and translated into English. Article edited by James Hyams.

***The Korean Observer has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information above. It is important to note that this matter is before the courts and The Korean Observer has no intention of interfering with the justice system.