Narcotics officer found dead with gunshot wound

TANGERANG (JP): A police narcotics detective was found dead with a gunshot wound to his stomach, at his rented house in the Legok district here on Monday night.

His wife was also in critical condition with a similar wound. Both victims were found in their home in the Dasana Indah housing complex in Bojong Nangka.

No Tangerang or Jakarta police officers were willing to discuss the incident.

Senior forensic expert Mun'im Idries from Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta made a preliminary judgment, saying that the detective had committed suicide by shooting himself after shooting his wife with the same gun, after an argument between the couple.

Chief of the Tangerang police precinct, Lt. Col. Pudji Hartono, refused to reveal any details of the shootings of Chief Sgt. Kusnadi Seta, 31, and wife Intan Krisantia Utami, 25.

"The case is being handled by Jakarta police detectives," Pudji told reporters.

However, he confirmed that his men had retrieved a gun and two bullets found at the scene.

"We have confiscated the Colt (handgun) that allegedly belonged to Kusnadi and two bullets believed to have been fired from the gun," officer Pudji said.

As of late evening, Intan was still being treated in the intensive care unit of the Soekanto Police Hospital in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, for the gunshot wound to her stomach.

The mother of a three-year-old boy underwent surgery, but doctors were worried because of her weak physical condition.

"Doctors have already operated on Intan and taken a bullet from her back, but she's still not allowed to be visited," one of the nurses at the hospital said.

Kusnadi, an officer in the Jakarta Police drugs and narcotics unit, died of one shot in his upper stomach, the bullet hitting his kidney and heart, said Mun'im.

According to the forensics expert, there were possibilities that Kusnadi was stressed over his work load, which triggered the dispute with his wife.

"It's not an easy job to be a police detective. It's stressful, and if the stress has reached its peak, even a trivial dispute can cause fatal anger," said Mun'im, who is widely known to have a close relationship with police detectives.

But his hypothesis was opposed by the victim's colleagues, who could not understand why their friend would use his gun to end his and his wife's lives.

The couple, they said, seemed to have a happy marriage.

"He seemed fine with his relatively new marriage, and the couple, who have one boy, seemed so happy. But who knows what happened inside their house," one of Kusnadi's friends, who asked for anonymity, said.

According to the victims' neighbors, Kusnadi was seen chatting with his neighbors at 9 p.m., who then heard two gunshots from Kusnadi's house not long after Kusnadi entered the home.

"The first shot was loud, while the second was a little bit softer," said one of the neighbors.

"We rushed to the house as soon as we heard the first shot," added the man, who refused to be named.

As the neighbors broke into the house, they found Intan about to collapse.

"I was shot," a neighbor quoted Intan as saying before she collapsed.

Antara quoted one of Kusnadi's elder sisters, Maryati, as saying that the officer had told his family on Monday afternoon that he was not feeling very well, and he asked for medicine.

"After taking the medicine, he took a rest and asked not to be disturbed because he was really stressed," Maryati said.

Both victims were rushed to the nearby Qadar hospital, but Kusnadi died en route.

Kusnadi was buried by his family on Tuesday in a military ceremony at the local Peuseur public cemetery, after his body underwent a postmortem examination at the Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital. (emf/41)