Itaewon crush victims' families sue fire officials over alleged record manipulation

Families of victims from the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush have taken a significant step by filing a criminal complaint against ten fire service officials, including former acting Fire Commissioner Nam Hwa-young and former Yongsan Fire Station Chief Choi Sung-beom. The families allege that emergency dispatch records submitted by the Fire Department to the Itaewon Disaster Special Investigation Committee were manipulated and incomplete.

The complaint, lodged on June 14th, accuses the officials of fabricating electronic records, creating false official documents, using forged documents, and obstructing justice. The legal action is the first time victims' families have directly collected evidence and initiated criminal proceedings against individuals they hold responsible for the alleged mishandling of the incident.

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The modification date of the files should have been recorded either on the actual recording date or around the time of the police seizure. It is difficult to find a reasonable explanation for all the recording files to be modified collectively within a specific 12-minute period, which strongly suggests artificial intervention in the original records.

According to Kang Min-ha, the aunt of victim Lee Sang-eun, the Fire Department submitted 1,053 audio files of 119 emergency calls from the night of the crush until the following afternoon. However, metadata analysis of these files revealed they were all modified within a 12-minute window on October 30, 2022, the day after the disaster. Kang argued that original files should have modification dates reflecting the actual recording times or the date of police seizure, not a single, consolidated modification period, suggesting intentional alteration.

Further allegations concern the Fire Department's response to a parliamentary inquiry in October of the previous year. Instead of providing original radio communication records as requested, the department submitted only transcripts. Kang claims these transcripts were based on the allegedly manipulated audio files. The families also accuse the Fire Department of providing false information to lawmakers regarding the activation times and operations of emergency command centers during the incident, asserting this was done to conceal the actual response times and actions of the command structure.

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We will also file additional charges regarding the failure of initial fire response and the lack of emergency medical care that led to increased casualties.