South Korean police are in search of legal prices, together with involuntary manslaughter and negligence, in opposition to 23 officers, about half of them regulation enforcement officers, for an absence of security measures they stated have been chargeable for a crowd surge that killed almost 160 individuals.
Despite anticipating a weekend crowd of greater than 100,000, Seoul police had assigned 137 officers to the capital’s nightlife district Itaewon on the day of the crush. Those officers have been targeted on monitoring narcotics use and violent crimes, which specialists say left few assets for pedestrian security.
Son Je-han, who headed the National Police Agency’s particular investigation into the incident, stated Friday his group will now ship the case to prosecutors. Those advisable for indictment embrace Park Hee-young, the mayor of Seoul’s Yongsan district, and the district’s former police chief Lee Im-jae – two of the six who’ve been arrested.
Lee has additionally been accused of falsifying a police report back to disguise his late arrival to the scene. Two different police officers have been arrested over suspicions they tried to destroy laptop recordsdata and different potential proof tied to the accident.
The outcomes of the 74-day police investigation introduced by Son largely confirmed what was already clear – that police and public officers in Yongsan did not make use of significant crowd management measures for the anticipated numbers of Halloween revelers and primarily ignored pedestrian calls positioned to police hotlines that warned of a swelling crowd hours earlier than the surge turned lethal on Oct. 28.
Officials additionally botched their response as soon as individuals started getting toppled over and crushed in a slender alley clogged with partygoers close to Hamilton Hotel round 10 p.m., failing to determine efficient management of the scene and permit rescue staff to achieve the injured in time, Son stated.
“(Their) inaccurate judgment 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 stated at a news convention in Seoul.
‘Manmade catastrophe’
Son stated his group questioned almost 540 individuals and picked up 14,000 items of proof from central and municipal authorities workplaces and transportation authorities. He stated police investigators studied greater than 180 video recordsdata recorded on safety cameras or taken by journalists and pedestrians and collectively inspected the scene with forensic specialists to investigate the density of the group.
Police stated the group packing the corridor-like alley between the lodge and a dense row of storefronts grew into an unstoppable wave round 9 p.m., with individuals being unable to dictate their motion as soon as they acquired swept in. At round 10:15 p.m., individuals started falling and toppling on each other like dominos, resulting in the tragedy that resulted in 158 deaths and 196 accidents.
Analysis of safety digital camera footage and simulations by the National Forensic Service point out the group density on the alley was round eight individuals per sq. meter (yard) at round 10:15 p.m. The density grew to eight to 9 individuals occupying the identical unit of area as of 10:20 p.m. and round 9 to 11 individuals as of 10:25 p.m., police stated.
Paramedics struggled to achieve the scene as a result of the world was so densely packed. Those who arrived have been so overwhelmed by the massive variety of individuals mendacity immobile on the bottom that they requested pedestrians to assist them carry out CPR. Most of the deaths have been attributable to suffocation or mind harm, police stated.
It’s unclear whether or not the outcomes of the police investigation could be sufficient to calm the general public’s anger and calls for for presidency accountability because the nation continues to deal with its worst catastrophe in almost a decade.
Opposition lawmakers and a few family of the victims have demanded investigations into extra high-profile figures, similar to Interior and Safety Minister Lee Sang-min and National Police Agency Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun, who’ve confronted calls to resign.
However, Son stated the particular investigation group will shut its probes on the Interior and Safety Ministry, the National Police Agency, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, saying it was tough to determine their direct accountability.
Some specialists have referred to as the crush in Itaewon a “manmade disaster” that would have been prevented with pretty easy steps, similar to using extra police and public staff to watch bottleneck factors, imposing one-way stroll lanes and blocking slender pathways or briefly closing Itaewon’s subway station to stop massive numbers of individuals shifting in the identical path.
