South Korean court acquits former police chief in deadly crowd deaths

SEOUL, South Korea – A South Korean court has found the country’s capital’s former police chief and two other officers not guilty over a botched response to a Halloween crowd that killed nearly 160 people in 2022.

The Seoul Western District Court’s ruling sparked angry reactions from grieving relatives and their lawyers, who accused the court of refusing to hold senior officials accountable for an incident largely blamed on a lack of disaster planning and inadequate emergency response.

Kim Kwang-ho, a former chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, was the highest-ranking police officer among more than 20 police and government officials charged over the altercation in Itaewon, a popular nightlife district in Seoul. Prosecutors had requested a five-year prison sentence for Kim.

An investigation conducted by the National Police Agency found that police and local officials did not plan effective crowd control measures even though they expected more than 100,000 people to gather for Halloween events in the Itaewon district.

Investigators found that Seoul police deployed only 137 officers to Itaewon on the day of the clash. Police also ignored hotline calls from pedestrians warning of the growing crowds before the surge turned deadly. When people were crushed in an alley near the Hamilton Hotel, they were unable to control the scene or allow paramedics to reach the injured in time.

Some experts called the crush a “man-made disaster” that could have been prevented with relatively simple measures, such as deploying more police and public personnel to monitor bottlenecks, enforcing one-way streets and blocking narrow paths.

The Seoul court acquitted Kim of professional negligence, saying prosecutors had failed to prove Kim’s dereliction of duty or to establish a connection between his conduct and the high death toll and injuries. The court also acquitted two lower-ranking police officers who were accused of similar charges.

The Itaewon Disaster Bereaved Families, a group representing victims of the clash, said the verdict was “dishonest” and “incomprehensible” and called on prosecutors to appeal.

“We strongly condemn the senior officers of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency who have disregarded their duties of prevention, preparation and response even though they expected a large crowd to gather and who have denied their responsibilities until now “, a free pass will be given,” the group said.

The same court earlier this month sentenced the former head of Seoul’s Yongsan District Police Station to three years in prison and convicted two of his colleagues of professional negligence resulting in death. One of the other officers was also sent to prison, while the other received a suspended sentence.

The court acquitted Park Hee-young, head of the Yongsan district office, and three other district officials, saying they had no legal authority to control or disperse crowds.