Raids continue into handling of Itaewon tragedy

Investigators from a special police investigation team leave the Yongsan Police Station in central Seoul as part of a raid of 55 offices on Tuesday related to the crowd crush in Itaewon on Oct. 29. [NEWS1]

A special police team raided 55 offices, including that of the national police chief, in its probe of the crowd crush in Itaewon that killed at least 156 people.

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, 84 officers conducted searches of the offices of National Police Agency (NPA) Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency (SMPA) Commissioner General Kim Kwang-ho, Yongsan Police Station chief Lee Im-jae and Yongsan District Office head Park Hee-young.

Other offices included the 112 situation room in the SMPA, the intelligence unit at the Yongsan Police Station, the Seoul Metropolitan Fire & Disaster Headquarters, Yongsan Fire Station, the Seoul Metro headquarters and the Itaewon Subway Station.

Around 130,000 people gathered in Itaewon for early Halloween celebrations on Oct. 29, which led to multiple calls to the 112 police hot line warning of a potential crowd crush. Overcrowding in the alleys behind and next to the Hamilton Hotel in Yongsan District, central Seoul eventually led to fatalities at around 10:15 p.m.

Many questions remain about the authorities' slow response on the night of the disaster and why better crowd control measures weren't in place. Police were particularly criticized for being slow to report bad news up the chain of command as the tragedy unfolded.

The special investigation team said it planned to seize mobile phones from main players and witnesses, documents related to the Halloween celebrations, computer records and CCTV footage.

On Nov. 2, the investigation team conducted an initial raid of eight offices including the SMPA, Yongsan Police Station, Yongsan District Office, Seoul Metropolitan Fire & Disaster Headquarters, Yongsan Fire Station and the Seoul Metro headquarters.

There was criticism that the NPA and SMPA chiefs' offices were not raided.

On Monday, police booked six suspects, including Yongsan police chief Lee Im-jae, district office head Park Hee-young and Yongsan Fire Station chief Choi Seong-beom, on charges of professional negligence that led to fatalities on the night of Oct. 29.

Another suspect, Ryu Mi-jin, a situation monitoring officer at the SMPA who was on duty the night of the tragedy but was missing from the 112 situation room, was charged with dereliction of duty, police clarified Tuesday, after initially announcing she was also charged with professional negligence.

Two other officials from the intelligence unit at the Yongsan Police Station were charged with abuse of authority and destruction of evidence.

The investigation team is looking into whether these Yongsan police officers deleted a document describing safety concerns around Halloween and if there was higher-up involvement in a cover-up attempt.

Yongsan police chief Lee has been criticized for lying about his whereabouts on the night of the accident, claiming he was on the scene minutes after the incident took place at 10:17 p.m. The investigation team found that Lee had, in fact, taken around an hour to get to the location by car because of traffic and arrived at the Yongsan police station at 11:05 p.m. The site would have been a 10-minute walk had he chosen to get out of his car.

In contrast, Choi's efforts to keep order on the scene has been recognized and he was one of the most visible emergency response figures. He gave on-site press briefings through the night explaining the situation in a calm tone, though his hand gripping the mike was trembling, showing that he was shaken.

Choi's efforts to manage the disaster had generally been praised by the public and people on social media. On Monday and Tuesday, many expressed surprise that he was charged along with figures who failed to show up.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]