A murder by the police?
Art Harun
I would have written about this earlier had I not been away.
I read with total disbelief about the totally unprovoked, unnecessary and unprofessional killing of a 14 year old boy by the police in the early hours of the 26th April 2010.
The police as usual, with its standard apathetic “statement” to the media, said:
“seorang yang disyaki penyamun ditembak polis awal pagi di Seksyen 11 Shah Alam….sebilah parang dijumpai di dalam kereta disyaki digunakan sebagai senjata untuk menyamun….suspek kedua berjaya melepaskan diri..”
(a person who was a suspected robber was shot by the police early this morning at section 11 Shah Alam …. a cleaver was found in the car which was suspected as the weapon used in robbery …. a second suspect successfully ran away … “) – translated by me.
YB Khalid Samad has a clear account of the incident on his blog.
I am aghast at the statement issued by the police. It is insensitive, irresponsible and in fact laced with so much bad intention.
On what ground and evidence did the police conclude that the 14 year old victim was a “suspected robber”?
Read the account at YB Khalid Samad’s blog. Read also the police report lodged by the “second suspect” who had apparently successfully ran away.
The police were clearly chasing the car driven by the victim for some traffic offences. That was all. Was there a necessity to shoot the driver? Can’t a patrol car overtake a Proton Iswara and stopped them? What kind of drivers were the police so much so that they have to resort to shooting the driver to stop a Proton Iswara driven by a 14 year old?
And to repeat my first question, what made the police to conclude that the 14 year old boy was a suspected robber and his passenger friend a “second suspect”?
The “parang” story was obviously an attempt at justifying the killing. So, if someone carried a parang, he could justifiably be shot to death is it? Even on that assumption, how did the police see the parang in the boot before shooting the 14 year old boy?
As could be seen from the “second suspect’s” police report, he had wanted to surrender. But he was kicked and stepped on by the policemen. He then ran away.
This kicking culture among the police is well known. That was what happened to Norizan Salleh, the woman who was shot not once, twice or thrice, but a good FIVE times by the police but fortunately lives on to tell the tale. She was also stepped on and kicked after being shot five times.
