Three former police officers were sentenced in a Seoul court on Wednesday for destroying evidence related to the deadly Halloween crowd crush in the city’s Itaewon neighborhood in 2022.
They are the first officers to be convicted of crimes related to the crowd crush, in which nearly 160 people were killed.
Former intelligence officer Park Sung-min of the Seoul Metropolitan Government was sentenced to 18 months in prison, while his subordinates Kim Jin-ho and Kwak Young-seok received shorter, suspended sentences, according to the ruling from Seoul’s Western District court.
The court document said Park ordered his officers to delete police reports warning of crowd-related incidents and raising public safety concerns ahead of the Halloween celebrations in 2022 shortly after the Itaewon crowd crush occurred.
One of the deleted police reports stated a need for measures to prevent male police officers from hitting on women during Halloween. It said that police officers deployed for Halloween in 2021 tried to meet up with women.
In another report, police stated the alleyway where most of the deaths occurred could be a particularly dangerous area when crowds gathered during the ceremonies in 2022 for Halloween. Since it was the first Halloween after the Covid restrictions were lifted, four times more visitors were expected than previous year when the area had about 50,000 people according to Seoul police.
Last month, Kim Kwang-ho, the police chief of Seoul, was indicted for negligence.
Most of those killed in the October 29 crush were young adults and teenagers, who were among tens of thousands of partygoers who poured into Seoul’s Itaewon district to celebrate Halloween. Many became trapped as revellers filled the narrow streets, with survivors and witnesses saying there was little police presence or crowd control until it was too late.
