South Korean court convicts 3 ex-police officers in cover-up of deadly Halloween crowd crush

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court has convicted three former police officers of destroying internal files and other evidence in an attempted cover-up after a Halloween crowd crush that killed nearly 160 people in 2022. These were the first convictions over the deaths. The high death toll was largely blamed on official failures in disaster planning and a botched emergency response. More than 20 government and police officials were indicted. The destroyed evidence included reports showing how police ignored warnings about possible crowd-related accidents in the Seoul nightlife district of Itaewon, where the deadly crush occurred.