Ballpoint gun shooting an accident: Friends
Ballpoint gun shooting an accident: Friends
JAKARTA (JP): After three days of intensive questioning, North
Jakarta Police arrested on Saturday three friends of a woman who
suffered a serious gun shot wound on Thursday, an officer said.
The three, identified as Yuli, a female discotheque employee,
and businessmen Tommy and Erick, are currently charged with
giving false information to the police about the shooting of
their friend Dewi Yulianti, 24, at Danau Sunter Hotel, North
Jakarta.
"The three have given false information concerning the
shooting. Why didn't they disclose all the facts at the first
opportunity?" asked city police spokesman Lt. Col. Edward
Aritonang.
The police, he said, would continue investigating the incident
thoroughly despite the three's preliminary confession that the
shooting was an accident.
According to a reliable source at the North Jakarta Police,
the three -- who initially admitted to knowing nothing about the
shooting -- confessed on Saturday that Dewi was shot by accident
by Yuli on the balcony of a room on the fifth floor of the hotel.
"Yuli admitted that while Dewi was chatting with Tommy and
Erick on the balcony, she saw a metallic ballpoint pen.
She didn't know that it was a gun and pressed a button which
caused a bullet to be fired from it," the officer, who asked for
anonymity, said on Sunday.
The police source said that panicking after Dewi was shot, the
three decided to throw the ballpoint gun into the hotel's park in
an attempt to avoid police charges.
Police combed the area recently and found the .22 caliber
ballpoint gun, which was later discovered as belonging to Tommy.
Dewi, who was shot in the back, is still being treated at the
Griya Medika Hospital, North Jakarta. The bullet has been removed
during surgery.
Ballpoint guns have become popular among certain groups of
people over the past few months in the capital, where street
crimes have shown a rapid increase.
So far, the police have yet to say why the four Jakartans were
at the hotel. (emf)