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S. Korean police refer 23 officials to prosecution over Halloween incident
SEOUL — 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 last year.
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 said left few resources for pedestrian safety.
Son Je-han, who headed the National Police Agency's special investigation into the incident, said on Friday that his team will now send the case to prosecutors. 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.
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.
Officials botched their response once people began toppling over and crushed in a narrow alley clogged with partygoers at around 10 pm, failing to establish effective control of the scene and allow rescue workers to reach the injured in time, Son said.
Son said his team questioned nearly 540 people and collected 14,000 pieces of evidence from central and municipal government offices and transportation authorities.
Police said the crowd packing the corridor-like alley between the hotel and a dense row of storefronts grew into an unstoppable wave around 9 pm, with people being unable to dictate their movement once they got swept in. At 10:15 pm, people began falling and toppling on one another like dominoes, leading to the tragedy that resulted in 158 deaths.
Analysis indicated that the crowd density at the alley was around eight people per square meter at around 10:15 pm. The density grew to eight to nine people occupying the same unit of space as of 10:20 pm and around nine to 11 people as of 10:25 pm, police said.
Public anger
Paramedics struggled to reach the scene because the area was so densely packed. Those who arrived were so overwhelmed by the large number of people lying motionless on the ground that they asked pedestrians to help them perform CPR. Most of the deaths were caused by suffocation or brain damage, police said.
It is unclear whether the results of the 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.
Opposition lawmakers and some relatives of the victims have demanded investigations into more high-profile figures such as Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min and National Police Agency Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun, who have faced calls to resign.
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