SEOUL – The head of the Seoul police was summoned for questioning today as part of an investigation into the bungled response to the deadly crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon neighbourhood.
Kim Kwang-ho, the chief of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, appeared at a special investigation team’s headquarters in western Seoul as a suspect, Yonhap news agency reported.
Kim was booked on charges of professional negligence, resulting in the deaths of 158 people, mostly in their 20s, on October 29.
Asked about the charges upon his arrival at the building, Kim simply said, “I will faithfully undergo the investigation without hiding or adding any facts.”
He is the highest-ranking police officer to be summoned for questioning after the team sought warrants to detain four senior officers yesterday.
The four are Lee Im-jae, former head of the Yongsan Police Station covering the Itaewon district; Park Sung-min, a former high-ranking intelligence officer; Kim Jin-ho, a former intelligence officer at the Yongsan Police Station; and Song Byung-joo, a former emergency monitoring officer at the Yongsan Police Station. – Bernama, December 2, 2022
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