Federal Way child’s death followed a pattern of suspected abuse

The individual arrested for the death and abuse of his 5-year-old daughter May 29 in Federal Way has been identified as Woo Jin Hahn, 29.

Hahn has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree abuse of a child, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. His bail was set at $5 million.

Probable cause documents state that Hahn was the one to call 911 to report that his daughter wasn’t breathing on the afternoon of Thursday, May 29, at their apartment on Southwest Campus Drive. When the first police officer arrived, he saw Hahn performing CPR, and also noted recent and fading bruises and cuts on the child. Although lifesaving measures were attempted and she was transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, she died that night.

Hahn admitted to the officer at the scene that he caused the bruises and cuts on the child’s head. He told the officer that the cuts were from “hitting her with a metal cup” and described that he would typically discipline her “with a cup or a stick,” according to court documents.

Hahn was then arrested for assault of a child and transported to the Federal Way Police Department. At the police station, Hahn told police that he had been home with his child who died and his girlfriend’s three children since she left for work at 3 a.m. May 29, according to court documents.

Hahn stated that all four children had been suffering from food poisoning and described how he abused his 5-year-old child in response to this illness. He detailed extensive violence including punching her in the stomach, trying to force her to eat, hitting her with objects and tying her to a toilet for hours. This abuse is just one of many documented incidents of violence by Hahn toward these children and his girlfriend, who told police that she and Hahn have been together for four years, according to documents.

Just a year earlier on April 18, 2024, Hahn’s girlfriend filed a petition for a protection order against him. At that time she only named her three children — who were 9, 8 and 5 years of age — in the protection order.

In the petition, she describes an escalation over several days after she attempted to stand up to Hahn when he threatened to hit the children with a stick.

“He has been angry that I stepped in the way of him parenting and has been verbally abusing and threatening me and my children since then. I am afraid he will come home and hurt either me or my children since he has in the past,” she stated in the documents.

She also references a previous incident where Hahn punched her in the face and tackled her to the ground to stop her from calling 911, then locked her out of the house with the children inside.

Although she states in the documents that his abuse of the children was reported to CPS and resolved, “his behavior continued” and “the children have been hit by him on multiple occasions.”

In behavior consistent with the violence admitted to police, she also described in the petition that he “often puts blame on the children for things that are out of their control.”

On April 19, 2024, she was granted a temporary protection order. It prohibited Hahn from coming within 1,000 feet of the girlfriend, her three children or their shared residence.

To complete the protection order, the girlfriend would have had to attend a virtual hearing on May 3, which coincidentally was also Hahn’s birthday. The day of the hearing, she failed to appear, and the possibility for the protection order dissolved and was never served, according to documents.

Protection orders in Washington state

Speakers at a Domestic Violence Initiative Regional Task Force update in September of last year described both the progress and the challenge of obtaining a protection order in Washington state.

Even with legislative changes to streamline the process and make it more accessible for victims of domestic violence, it still takes an act of “unimaginable bravery” as Chelle Hunsinger de Enciso explained at the event, who works at the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Victims of domestic violence may file their petitions with no fee and have access to an advocate who can work with them on their intake. King County is the only county in Washington that offers this protection order advocacy program, according to the program’s description on their website.

Petitions may also be filed online, which is a recent change that took place as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence in King County, DAWN is an organization that provides a variety of resources including a 24-hour advocacy and support line, a confidential emergency shelter and more. Contact DAWN at dawnrising.org or call 425-656-7867.