JP/3/Kedaung/0/12 MB

Robbers shoot man to death, injure another in Ciputat

JAKARTA (JP): A group of masked men gunned down a 30-year-old man and seriously injured his brother in a robbery yesterday in the Kedaung township of Ciputat, Tangerang.

"The group consisted of at least seven masked men and all of their identities are already in our hands," said Lt. Col. Latief Rabar, spokesman for the City Police, which also over oversees Tangerang.

Latief added that the gang came to the scene at around 2.30 a.m. with no vehicles, indicating that the criminals might live nearby.

Sources and relatives of the victims strongly believe that the robbers knew that the family, who moved to the area three months ago had just sold their 180-square-meter plot in Cipete, South Jakarta, for Rp 200 million (US$95,238).

But Abdullah, a man close to the victims' family, said the family had spent all of the money to finance the development of a new house they built and to buy a plot of land.

The family's residence in the Kedaung area is a new two-story house with a high iron fence, the only one in the kampong.

"One of them placed a sickle on my neck and said they could kill me if they wished when I told them I had no money," said Mimik, 50, the mother of the late Abdulchair and the injured Ahmad Gozali, 28.

Mimik sustained minor injuries when the robbers beat her with the butt of a handgun.

She said three of the robbers, whose faces were covered with black scarves except for their eyes, entered her house while the others waited outside.

One of the robbers also hit the face of Nunung, one of Mimik's daughters who saw the robbers shooting Gozali in the stomach.

Key witness

Police source said that Nunung, 13, is the key witness as she had the chance to see the face of one of the robbers.

"She even had the chance to open the mask of one of the burglars and surprisingly said, 'Oh, it's you'," said a police officer, who refused to be identified, adding that Nunung apparently recognized the robber in question.

According to Mimik, the robbers must have switched off the electricity before entering the house through the large, front window which has no bars.

After entering the living room, the group got into the bedroom of Mimik and his husband, Nurdin, 53, a businessman.

"Our room was dark at the time except the light from a flashlight one of the burglars used so we could not recognize them," Mimik said, adding that the men left with only a 12-gram gold bracelet and necklace.

When one of the robbers placed his a sickle around his wife's neck, Nurdin could do nothing as the masked robbers pointed their guns and machetes at him.

Latief said that the group had two guns in addition to other weapons.

Neighbors who had stepped out of their houses, aroused by the screams for help from Mimik's families, were threatened by at least five other men around the house.

"I opened the door of my house and a man pointed a (hand) gun at my forehead," said Murtadji, who said the men outside were not masked, and all were clad in black jackets.

Murtadji was told by the robbers to go inside or get killed.

One of them said, "We have no business with you, our business is with the people over there, pointing to Mimik's house," Murtadji quoted one of the robbers said, adding that adding they had Betawi (native Jakarta) accents.

Latief said that the late Dede, who slept on the second story, was shot by the burglars in his left chest as he was throwing a glass at the gang members shortly after he went down upon hearing the noise from his parent's bedroom.

He died at the scene.

After the shots, the robbers immediately left the house.

Hearing the noise, Dede's brother Nanang, who also slept on the second story, tried to chase after the group and threw a flower vase at the robbers.

Police believed that the pot hit one of the group, who then turned back to chase after Nanang and fired two shots at him.

Nanang sustained serious injuries and remains in a critical condition at the Fatmawati hospital in South Jakarta. (bsr/anr)