A South Korean police officer who was being investigated in reference to the Halloween crowd crush that killed greater than 150 folks in Seoul was discovered useless Friday, police stated. The 55-year-old, recognized solely by his surname Jeong, was discovered useless at his dwelling in Seoul, an official on the Nationwide Police Company advised AFP.
Jeong, an intelligence officer, had been working for the police station that oversaw the district of Itaewon, an leisure space within the South Korean capital the place the crush came about.
His workplace — the Yongsan Police Station — is without doubt one of the targets of a significant investigation into the catastrophe, together with botched crowd management efforts.
Investigators had beforehand raided the police station.
Transcripts of emergency calls, launched earlier this month by the police, confirmed their hotline had acquired 11 experiences of harmful crowding practically 4 hours earlier than catastrophe struck, however apparently didn’t take motion.
SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures
The 156 those that died within the crush had been primarily younger girls, together with a handful of youngsters and greater than two dozen foreigners.
Not less than 100,000 folks had flocked to the world to have a good time the primary post-pandemic Halloween, however neither native authorities nor police had deliberate measures for a crowd that enormous.
A handful of prime officers together with the police chief, Seoul mayor and the inside minister issued public apologies final week, admitting they’d failed to stop the deadly catastrophe.
Jeong had been accused of ordering the destruction of an intelligence report, which had warned of a possible accident over Halloween in Itaewon, amongst different infractions, the Yonhap information company reported.
1000’s of individuals gathered in Seoul at a candlelight vigil over the weekend to mourn the victims, with public anger rising over the federal government’s dealing with of the tragedy.
Officers stated 26 of the useless had been overseas nationals, together with 5 Iranians, 4 Chinese language, 4 Russians, two Japanese residents and two People — College of Kentucky scholar Anne Gieske and Kennesaw State College scholar Steven Blesi.
Additionally among the many victims was 24-year-old Korean actor and singer Lee Jihan, his company 935 Leisure confirmed in a press release.
