UPDATE
Feb 14, 2024 9:25 AM CST
Wednesday brought the first convictions in connection with the 2022 Halloween crowd surge in Seoul that killed almost 160 people. Three former police officers were found guilty of destroying documents—including an internal report that warned of crowd-related accidents during the festivities—they feared could lead to police being held liable for what transpired, reports the New York Times. Park Seong-min, a senior official with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, was handed 18 months, while a former official and former officer at Yongsan Police Station each received lesser suspended sentences. The head of the police agency has yet to stand trial on a charge of contributing to the crush through negligence; he faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Jan 13, 2023 2:29 AM CST
South Korean police are seeking criminal charges including involuntary manslaughter and negligence against 23 officials, about half of them law enforcement officers, for a lack of safety measures they said were responsible for a crowd surge that killed nearly 160 people. Despite anticipating a weekend crowd of more than 100,000, Seoul police had assigned 137 officers to the capital's nightlife district Itaewon on the day of the crush. Those officers were focused on monitoring narcotics use and violent crimes, which experts say left few resources for pedestrian safety. Son Je-han, who headed the National Police Agency's special investigation into the incident, said Friday his team will now send the case to prosecutors, the AP reports.
Those recommended for indictment include Park Hee-young, who is mayor of Seoul's Yongsan district, and the district's former police chief Lee Im-jae—two of the six who have been arrested. Lee has also been accused of falsifying a police report to disguise his late arrival to the scene. Two other police officials have been arrested over suspicions they attempted to destroy computer files and other potential evidence tied to the accident. The results of the 74-day police investigation announced by Son mostly confirmed what was already clear—that police and public officials in Yongsan failed to employ meaningful crowd control measures for the expected numbers of Halloween revelers and essentially ignored pedestrian calls placed to police hotlines that warned of a swelling crowd hours before the surge turned deadly on Oct. 28.
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Officials also botched their response once people began getting toppled over and crushed in a narrow alley clogged with partygoers near Hamilton Hotel around 10pm, failing to establish effective control of the scene and allow rescue workers to reach the injured in time, Son said. "(Their) inaccurate judgement of the situation, the slow distribution of information about the situation, poor cooperation between related institutions and delays in rescue operations were among the overlapping failures that caused the high number of casualties," Son said at a news conference in Seoul. It's unclear whether the results of the police investigation would be enough to calm the public's anger and demands for government accountability as the country continues to cope with its worst disaster in nearly a decade.
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