Police refer 23 people to prosecution after investigating Itaewon crowd crush

After 73 days of investigating the deadly Itaewon crowd surge, police on Friday announced that they referred 23 people to prosecutors — but concluded they won’t hold the interior minister or police chief accountable for any charges.

Son Je-han, head of the Itaewon special probe team in the Korean National Police Agency, gives a briefing on the results of the team's investigation to reporters on Friday in Mapo District, western Seoul. [YONHAP]

After 73 days of investigating the deadly Itaewon crowd surge, police on Friday announced that they referred 23 people to prosecutors — but concluded they won’t hold the interior minister or police chief accountable for any charges.

While some other police departments will continue investigating the fire authority and Hamilton Hotel, the special probe team at the Korean National Police Agency said in a press conference that they were effectively wrapping up their months-long probe into the Itaewon tragedy and passing the baton to prosecutors.

The victims’ surviving families slammed the probe team for failing to press charges against Interior Minister Lee Sang-min and Yoon Hee-keun, commissioner general of the Korean National Police Agency, calling the investigation “irresponsible.”

Throngs of revelers fill up an alley next to Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon-dong, Yongsan District, central Seoul, on Oct. 29, as they try to pass by. Among the crowd, 158 people, mostly under age 30, died. [YONHAP]

Based on two on-site joint inspections with the National Forensic Service, some 180 videos retrieved from CCTVs near the tragic site, about 140,000 confiscated goods from relevant organizations and 538 people investigated, the probe team said “suffocation due to crowd pressure and etcetera” was the core reason why 158 people died in the surge.

The probe team stressed that no one seemed to have intentionally pushed anyone in the narrow alley beside Hamilton Hotel on the night of Oct. 29 as massive crowds of young revelers showed up in Itaewon to celebrate Halloween.

A large crowd of people descended on the narrow, steep alley that was just 3 meters (about 10 feet) wide, ending up “simultaneously falling” on top of each other, the team said.

Kim Dong-uk, a spokesperson for the team, said they couldn’t figure out the exact cause and time of death for each victim. But when the team asked Kim Young-hwan, head of the National Medical Center’s trauma center, for advice, Kim was said to have replied that the victims could have died from suffocation, intra-abdominal hemorrhage or "reperfusion syndrome."

Park Jun-young, a mechanical design engineer at Kumoh National Institute of Technology, cited findings from forensic officials in explaining during the briefing that six to 10 victims are believed to have been crushed against each other per square meter (10.8 square feet) from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. that night, experiencing a force of about 224 to 560 kilograms (494 to 1,235 pounds) on average.

The probe team said the Itaewon tragedy was a man-made disaster, blaming the Yongsan District Office, police and firefighters for failing to take precautions.

As a result, 28 people in total were booked, six of whom have been detained on allegations including professional negligence resulting in death. Detainees include Park Hee-young, head of the Yongsan District Office, and Lee Im-jae, head of the Yongsan Police Precinct.

Seventeen people from the police, fire authority and Yongsan District Office have been referred to prosecutors without detention.

BY KIM JUNG-MIN,LEE SUNG-EUN [lee.sungeun@joongang.co.kr]