South Korean court acquits former police chief over deadly crowd crush

Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court found the former police chief of the country’s capital, Seoul, 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 the anger of grieving relatives and their advocates, who accused the court of refusing to hold high level officials accountable over the 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 official among more than 20 police and government officials indicted over the crush in Itaewon, a popular nightlife district in Seoul.