On Friday, a South Korean police officer being probed in connection with the Halloween crowd crush that killed more than 150 people in Seoul was discovered dead, according to police. A 55-year-old man named only by his surname Jeong was discovered dead in his house in Seoul, a National Police Agency official told AFP.
Jeong, an intelligence officer, had been employed by the police station that handled the entertainment zone of Itaewon in the capital of South Korea, where the crush occurred.
His agency, the Yongsan Police Station, is one of the primary focuses of a massive inquiry into the disaster, which includes failed crowd control attempts.
The police station had already been raided by investigators.
The police released transcripts of emergency calls earlier this month, which revealed that their hotline had received 11 reports of unsafe crowding about four hours before the accident, but seemingly did nothing.
On Sunday, October 30, 2022, police officers stand watch behind cordons in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul, South Korea. SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg accessed through Getty Images
The majority of the 156 persons killed in the crush were young women, including a handful of adolescents and more than a dozen foreigners.
At least 100,000 people had traveled to the area to celebrate the first Halloween after the outbreak, but neither the local government nor the police had prepared for such a big gathering.
Last week, a handful of high-ranking officials, including the police chief, mayor of Seoul, and interior minister, offered public apologies for failing to avert the tragic calamity.
Yonhap stated that Jeong was accused of directing the deletion of an intelligence report that warned of a potential accident on Halloween in Itaewon, among other offenses.
Thousands of people gathered in Seoul over the weekend for a candlelight memorial to mourn the victims, as public outrage grew over the government’s response to the disaster.
Officials reported that 26 of the victims were foreign nationalities, including five Iranians, four Chinese, four Russians, two Japanese, and two Americans, Anne Gieske and Steven Bledsey.
Lee Jihan, a 24-year-old Korean actor and singer, was also among the victims, his agency 935 Entertainment announced in a statement.