JP/3/Kedaung/0/12 MB
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)