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)