Alleged hoodlum stabbed to death

Alleged hoodlum stabbed to death

JAKARTA (JP): An on-duty security guard from a private company
in Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, stabbed to death an alleged hoodlum
for extorting and assaulting him, police said yesterday.

City Police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said the security
guard, identified as Suratno, claimed he stabbed the man in self-
defense.

Kebon Jeruk Police have detained Suratno for further
questioning, Aritonang said.

"Police will investigate Suratno's claim and see whether or
not his conduct really was an act of self-defense."

According to Suratno, the alleged hoodlum, identified as Agus
Supriatna, came to his workplace about 9 p.m. Monday and asked
for money, Aritonang said.

Suratno was on night shift and conducting his routine security
check of the office site on Jl. Terusan Arjuna, Kebon Jeruk, he
said.

Agus, who was apparently drunk, threatened to beat Suratno
with a metal bar if the latter refused to give him money,
Aritonang quoted Suratno as saying.

"Suratno said Agus then started beating him with the bar after
he refused to give him money."

In response, Suratno took his machete and fought back, he
said. Agus died from severe stab wounds.

Ali Wakidi, Agus' father, was told a completely different
story about the death of his youngest son, who left his hometown
of Bandung to go to Jakarta last year.

Ali was told that Agus had been involved in a fight with
Suratno, a friend who worked at the same company.

He was told that his son was not a hoodlum and that Agus was
not extorting Suratno but asking for the latter's contribution
for a dinner party. Instead of giving money, however, Suratno
became angry with Agus and they ended up fighting.

Agus had been working for PT Artha Yasa for the past few
months, Ali said.

"Suasto, my son's supervisor, said Agus and his friends,
including Suratno, were about to roast some chickens for a dinner
party and that each of them had to contribute an amount of money
for it."

He said Agus lived in the company's makeshift tents on Jl.
Terusan Arjuna, Kebun Jeruk.

"Agus told me that he enjoyed the work because most of his
friends also worked there. He rarely came home to visit us," Ali,
a resident of Cariang, Bandung, said.

Ali rushed from Bandung to the Cipto Mangunkusumo General
Hospital's morgue in Central Jakarta early yesterday to identify
Agus' body.

Despite his grief, Ali said he held no grudge against his
son's alleged killer.

"It's his fate," he said of his son. "Maybe he had done things
wrong."

Ali also said that he left the case in the hands of police but
would do all he could to help the investigation.

He said: "I approved an autopsy for the police's sake, my son
is dead so he wouldn't feel anything."

Aritonang said Suratno would face a maximum jail term of seven
years if a police investigation determined that the stabbing was
in fact manslaughter, not self-defense. (04/cst)