The slaying of a South Korean woman during an initiation process for a group that called itself Soldiers of Christ has shocked the large Korean American community in metro Atlanta. Community leaders say Korean Americans need to be more vigilant to protect against religious cults and the possible exploitation of new arrivals from South Korea.
Among those recommended for indictment include the mayor of Seoul's Yongsan district, and the district's former police chief — two of the six who have been arrested.
As bereaved families and friends struggle to make sense of a Halloween crowd crush that killed 156 people in South Korea's capital, their grief is mixed with anger about officials' failure to employ crowd controls in a small nightlife district swarmed with tens of thousands of partiers.
The raids by South Korea's National Police Agency on local police came a day after the national agency acknowledged that Seoul police failed to act for hours despite calls warning of a swelling crowd.
Police have assembled the crumpled shoes — part of the many personal objects left by victims and survivors of the tragedy — in hopes that the owners, or their friends and family, will retrieve them.
Kennesaw State University confirmed in a statement Sunday night that Steven Blesi, an international business major at the university, was killed in the stampede in downtown Seoul on Saturday.
South Korean officials say at least 26 foreign nationals were among the more than 150 people killed in the incident in Seoul's Itaewon district. Many were young adults celebrating Halloween.
Some of the heaviest rain in decades swamped South Korea's capital region, turning Seoul's streets into car-clogged rivers and leaving at least eight people dead and seven others missing.
Mayor Park Won-soon's daughter told police he left a verbal message similar to a will, and later turned off his mobile phone. His body was found in a wooded park early Friday, police say.
