Police: Assault on elderly laundry owner in Tamansari not a robbery attempt

The Police Chief of Metro Tamansari, Kompol Bobby M. Zulfikar, stressed that the incident of assault on an elderly laundry business owner in Tamansari, West Jakarta, was not part of a robbery. ‘We are trying to correct the circulating news that there was a robbery in the Maphar area at a laundry shop. It was only an assault on an elderly person by the perpetrator identified as JA, aged 30,’ Bobby said when contacted in Jakarta on Wednesday. Following investigations, the suspect is known to be a resident of Karanganyar, Central Jakarta, who had been active around Tamansari. The suspect admitted that he initially wanted to drop off laundry, but the shop had already closed, which led to his emotional outburst and assault. ‘According to the statements we have, he was annoyed because he was not accepted regarding his laundry issue. But if further information is needed, we will probe,’ said Bobby. For his actions, police have charged JA under Article 351 of the Indonesian KUHP concerning assault. ‘The penalty is more than five years in prison,’ Bobby added. Previously, an elderly woman named Christine Wijaya (76) was violently assaulted by a man with the initials JA (30) at her laundry business on Jalan Kebon Jeruk IX, Kelurahan Maphar, Tamansari, West Jakarta. The incident occurred on Tuesday (19 May) around 6:00 pm local time, when the victim was closing her laundry for the night. The suspect arrived with a small amount of clothing and asked that his laundry be accepted despite the closing time. ‘My laundry closes at six. While I was closing the door, he came and said he wanted to wash, I said we could, but what about washing it tomorrow? He said it would be fine for tomorrow,’ Christine said at the scene on Wednesday. Nevertheless, because she did not want to refuse a customer, Christine allowed the man inside to weigh his clothes. However, while Christine was weighing, the suspect suddenly attacked her face and head repeatedly. ‘He punched me in the face with his bare hands, directly at the eye,’ she said. Christine stated that the head area was later struck with an object, though she could not identify what object. ‘When the police asked what he hit me with, I did not know. He was making a ’dug, dug, dug’ noise; I did not know what the object was. I yelled