SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court found the former police chief of the country’s capital and two other officers not guilty over a botched response to a Halloween crowd crush that killed nearly 160 people in 2022.
The verdict by the Seoul Western District Court drew angry responses from grieving relatives and their advocates, who accused the court of refusing to hold high-level officials accountable for an incident that was largely blamed on a lack of disaster planning and an inadequate emergency response.
Kim Kwang-ho, former chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, was the most senior police officer among more than 20 police and government officials indicted over the crush in Itaewon, a popular nightlife district in Seoul. Prosecutors had sought a five-year prison term for Kim.
An investigation led by the National Police Agency found that police and local officials failed to plan effective crowd control measures even though they expected more than 100,000 people to gather for Halloween events in Itaewon.
The investigators found that Seoul police assigned just 137 officers to Itaewon on the day of the crush. Police also ignored hotline calls placed by pedestrians who warned of swelling crowds before the surge turned deadly. Once people began getting crushed in an alley near Hamilton Hotel, police failed to establish control over the site and allow paramedics to reach the injured in time.
Some experts have called the crush a “manmade disaster” that could have been prevented with relatively simple steps like employing more police and public workers to monitor bottleneck points, enforcing one-way walking lanes, and blocking narrow pathways.
The Seoul court acquitted Kim of professional negligence, saying that prosecutors failed to prove that he had violated his duties or to establish a connection between his conduct and the high toll of deaths and injuries. The court also acquitted two lower-ranking police officers who faced similar charges.
The court stated that while Kim received status updates from various departments in his agency and the Yongsan police station about the situation in Itaewon before the crush on Oct. 29, 2022, this information would not have been sufficient for him to recognize the possibility of an incident of such magnitude.
The court also noted that Kim had instructed various police stations in Seoul, including Yongsan, to establish plans to maintain safety during Halloween celebrations.
“Based solely on evidence submitted by prosecutors, it's insufficient to conclude that the defendants’ professional negligence and its relationship to the occurrence or escalation of this incident are fully established beyond reasonable doubt," the court said in a statement. Relatives of the victims embraced and cried outside the court after the verdict was announced.
“This court just granted immunity to the police for whenever these kinds of incidents happen again!" one of them shouted. Others scuffled with security as they tried to approach Kim's car as he left the court.
Itaewon Disaster Bereaved Families, a group representing the victims, said the ruling was “dishonest” and “impossible to understand” and called for prosecutors to appeal.
“We strongly condemn that the main officials of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, who ignored their duties for prevention, preparation and response despite anticipating that a large crowd would develop, and who have been denying their responsibility until now, are being given a free pass,” the group said.
The same court last month sentenced the former chief of Yongsan police station, Lee Im-jae, to three years in prison and convicted two of his colleagues of professional negligence resulting in death, citing their failure to properly prepare for the crowd and respond to the crush.
The court acquitted Park Hee-young, head of the Yongsan ward office, and three other ward officials, saying that they had no legal authority to control or break up crowds.
Lee and another Yongsan police official who received a one-year sentence appealed the ruling earlier this month. The other police official had received a suspended sentence.
Bereaved family members of the victims of the Halloween crush in 2022 react at the Seoul Western District Court in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (Lim Hwa-young/Yonhap via AP)
Kim Kwang-ho, center, former chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, arrives at the Seoul Western District Court in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (Lim Hwa-young/Yonhap via AP)
Wall Street was on track to open with gains Thursday on another big day for corporate earnings and the latest government economic data.
Futures for the S&P 500 rose 0.4% before the bell while futures the Dow Jones Industrial Average moved 0.1% higher. Nasdaq futures pointed up 0.8%.
Elevance Health shares skidded 12.3% after the health insurer missed Wall Street's third-quarter profit projections and warned that rising medial costs threatened to drag on future earnings.
Railroad operator CSX tumbled 4.7% in extended trading after it said Wednesday that it expects only modest volume growth the rest of the year as the Southeast rebuilds after two major hurricanes.
The Jacksonville, Florida-based railroad reported per-share profit for its most recent quarter that came in lower than analysts had forecast and said it expects a $50 million drag on its fourth-quarter results as it repairs tracks damaged by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
Shares of Expedia jumped 6.7% after the Financial Times reported that the ride-hailing app Uber had considered a takeover bid for travel booking site.
Taiwan Semiconductor jumped 9.6% after its third-quarter sales and profit beat analyst forecasts. The company also issued rosy fourth-quarter guidance, boosted by expected demand for artificial intelligence-related products.
Coming later Thursday morning are government reports on retail sales and layoffs. Retail sales are expected to rise for the third straight month, while layoffs are projected to come in higher again, suggesting the job market continues to soften from the pressure of elevated interest rates.
European stocks gained in anticipation that the European Central Bank will cut borrowing costs.
The rate-setting council of the ECB, which sets interest rates for the 20 countries that use the euro currency, is expected to lower its benchmark rate from 3.5% to 3.25% after figures showed inflation across the bloc falling to its lowest level in more than three years and economic growth waning.
Germany's DAX gained 0.6% and the CAC 40 in Paris advanced 0.8%. Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.3% to 8,367.96.
In Asian trading, Chinese markets fell back after officials in Beijing announced the government was expanding financing for housing projects to try to turn around a slump in the property market triggered by a crackdown on excessive borrowing by developers.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 1% to 20,079.10, while the Shanghai Composite index shed 1.1% to 3,169.38.
China is due to announce its economic growth data for the April-September quarter on Friday. Economists are forecasting annual growth at about 4.5%, short of the government's target of about 5%.
China's leaders have promised more measures to help boost the economy, but so far have not provided details of stimulus on a scale that would satisfy investors hoping to see reforms that might address longer term problems such as massive local debt and weak consumer demand.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index lost 0.7% to 38,911.19 after the government reported Japan's exports fell 1.7% from a year earlier in September, widening the country's trade deficit.
South Korea's Kospi slipped less than 0.1% to 2,609.30 and in Australia the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.9% to 8,355.90.
Taiwan's Taiex gained 0.2% and India's Sensex was down 0.6%. In Thailand, the SET gained 0.7% a day after the central bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point, to 2.25%.
The price of oil rose early Thursday. After surging recently it has fallen back as worries recede that Israel will attack Iranian oil facilities as part of its retaliation for Iran’s missile attack early this month. Iran is a major producer of crude, and a strike could upend its exports to China and elsewhere. Concerns about the strength of demand because of China’s flagging economic growth have also hit oil prices.
U.S. benchmark crude oil was up 7 cents at $70.46 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 8 cents to $74.30 per barrel.
The dollar fell to 149.55 Japanese yen from 149.64 yen. The euro rose to $1.0864 from $1.0862.
The New York Stock Exchange is shown on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024 in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
A passerby moves past an electronic stock board showing Japan's stock prices outside a securities firm in Tokyo, on Oct. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama)
FILE - People walk past Hong Kong's stock exchange building as the market closed with a massive fall of more than nine percent in the benchmark Hang Seng Index, on Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo, File)
