Head of Yongsan District Office detained over Itaewon crush

Park Hee-young, right, head of the Yongsan District Office, arrives at the Seoul Western District Court on Monday to attend a hearing for her pre-trial detention warrant. [YONHAP]

A local court issued a pre-trial detention warrant for the head of the Yongsan District Office in connection with the Itaewon crowd crush, nearly two months after the tragedy claimed 158 lives.

Also detained on Monday night was Choi Won-jun, head of the same district office’s Safety and Disaster Division.

Park Hee-young, the district office chief, was detained for alleged professional negligence resulting in death. Choi was detained on the same allegation plus an added charge of dereliction of duty.

In explaining why the warrants were issued, a judge at the Seoul Western District Court cited concerns that the duo could destroy evidence, adding that the allegations described appear to be true.

The detentions come just three days after two senior police officers were detained on similar charges.

Lee Im-jae, former head of the Yongsan Police Precinct, and Song Byeong-ju, former head of the Yongsan Police Precinct’s 112 emergency hotline situation room, were both detained last Friday by the same court.

Officials part of a special investigation team with the Korean National Police Agency that’s probing the crowd crush said they were planning to target officials at the Yongsan Fire Department and the Seoul Metro next on allegations they ignored distress signals.

While in court on Monday, Yongsan District chief Park and her lawyers were said to have denied the allegation of professional negligence resulting in death, arguing that the tragedy was unforeseen.

Prosecutors and police, in turn, said they zeroed in on the fact that Park lied about her whereabouts on the day of the Itaewon crowd surge and changed her phone after the incident.

Police said they believe Park changed her phone to destroy evidence.

According to police, Park testified she was at a family gathering in Uiryeong County, South Gyeongsang, on Oct. 29, when the streets of Itaewon were filling up with young revelers out celebrating Halloween.

She returned home, near the tragic scene, that day at around 8:20 p.m.

Park told police that she left her home twice — at 8:20 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. — that night to look in on the crowd. But CCTV footage later retrieved from her neighborhood showed she didn’t leave her house until much later that night — when people began to die.

Police said Park admitted her “memories got mixed.”

Park arrived near the alley where people were being crushed to death at around 10:59 p.m., but she allegedly didn’t participate in any of the six emergency meetings held on the scene by Seoul fire authorities.

A week later, Park changed her Galaxy phone to an iPhone.

Police said Choi, head of the Yongsan District Office’s Safety and Disaster Division, was out drinking with his friends on Oct. 29 and failed to arrive at the scene of the crush even after receiving “multiple notifications” about it.

Choi later took a taxi and went to Itaewon Station, police said, but went straight home without taking any action to help deal with the aftermath.

BY LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]