Corporal detained for being 'trigger-happy'

Corporal detained for being 'trigger-happy'

JAKARTA (JP): The city police have detained a police corporal
over the shooting of an 18-year-old student in the midst of
Saturday's street brawl in Jatinegara, East Jakarta, an officer
said on Sunday.

Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Nurfaizi identified the
arrested officer as First Cpl. Suyitno and said the latter was
not aiming at the student but that he had shot him by accident.

"The officer was trying to disperse the students involved in
the street brawl. But the students attacked him and he was firing
warning shots (when one of the bullets hit the victim)," Nurfaizi
said.

But he pledged to probe the case thoroughly.

"Suyitno is now being detained at the Internal Affairs
division. We will proceed with the case," he said.

The victim was identified as Tri Eka Sakti, 18, a resident of
Bekasi and a student of STM PGRI 3 vocational school in Pisangan
Timur, East Jakarta.

Tri, who was in his school uniform, was found near the
Pisangan Baru railway lines, some 500 meters from his school. He
had been shot in the back of the head.

A bystander told reporters that at about 12 p.m. the boy got
off the Bekasi train with 15 of his classmates. He was
immediately attacked by students from an unidentified school, who
were already in the area.

Jatinegara police chief of detectives and intelligence Second
Lt. Bambang Setyosembodo told reporters on Saturday that officers
from the Jatinegara Police subprecinct and East Jakarta Police
precinct, who were on the scene to secure the area, fired two
warning shots to disperse the brawling students.

"Suddenly, they saw one student on to the ground. The student
was already dead," he said.

The victim's parents, Jahidu and Tati Sumiyati, said that
Triekasakti was the third of their four children.

"The school always posts a teacher in the area, to make sure
that these fights don't happen... police were also there," Jahidu
said.

"They fired their first warning shot, 15 minutes after the
brawl. They fired another warning shot, which immediately
dispersed the brawling students... it was then that they found
the body of our son on the ground."

Angered with the death of their friend, the students stopped a
passing police officer and set his motorcycle ablaze later in the
afternoon. Their attempt to attack the officer, however, was
prevented by the school's teacher who managed to persuade the
students not to take the law into their hands.

In an unrelated development, Second Corporal Warsito of the
detachment division of the Kalisari Infantry Brigade I of Pasar
Rebo, East Jakarta, was nearly beaten to death on Friday night by
angry residents of the Karet Tengsin area in Tanah Abang, Central
Jakarta over a motorcycle theft.

City police spokesman Lt. Col. Zainuri Lubis said on Saturday
that Warsito was caught in the act of stealing a motorcycle near
the Benhill market in Tanah Abang, at about 7:20 p.m. on Friday.

"Residents got really mad... they chased him. He hit a person
and he fell from the motorcycle. He was immediately mobbed,"
Zainuri said. (ylt/06/nvn)