Police chief visits injured woman, asks forgiveness

Police chief visits injured woman, asks forgiveness

JAKARTA (JP): A young pregnant woman who was shot in the
abdomen on Sunday by a city police detective who mistakenly
thought she was a drug supplier was still being treated at Husada
hospital on Tuesday.

Jakarta Police chief Maj. Gen. Noegroho Djajoesman and two
senior police staff, including Central Jakarta Police chief Lt.
Col. Iman Haryatna, visited the 23-year-old victim, Sandra
Agustini, on Tuesday and asked her relatives for forgiveness.

Sources at the hospital said the bullet lodged in Sandra's
abdomen was removed Monday evening.

"She's fine. Her condition is stable. But she sometimes
screams because of the pain she's suffering," one of the nurses
said on Tuesday.

The nurse, who asked to remain anonymous, added that doctors
could not give any pain killers to the injured woman as this
could endanger her three-month-old pregnancy.

Sandra was with her husband late Sunday in the parking lot of
the Jayakarta Tower apartments on Jl. Hayam Wuruk in West Jakarta
when she was shot by a police detective, who thought the woman
was a drug supplier fleeing from a police raid.

Sandra said she thought that she and her husband, Wawan
Suhandi, 28, who were leaving the parking lot in their car after
having supper in the apartment building, were being ambushed by a
gang of armed robbers.

"I decided to leave our car to look for help," Sandra said
from her bed in the hospital.

One of the detectives involved in the raid admitted that all
of the police were in civilian clothes that night.

They surrounded the couple's Feroza jeep after receiving a
tip-off from a man arrested a few minutes earlier in his suite in
the same building, in possession of 100 grams of shabu-shabu
(crystal metamphetamine) and a revolver with five rubber bullets,
the officer said.

Most wanted

The man, A Hok, 33, had long been suspected of dealing shabu-
shabu, added the officer, who requested anonymity.

"While we took him down in the lift, we pushed him to tell us
the identities and whereabouts of his suppliers, the officer
said.

A Hok apparently told the detectives that his suppliers were
waiting in a blue Feroza parked downstairs.

"We then saw two people inside the jeep, but we really had no
idea of their sexes," he said.

According to the officer's explanation, the team encircled the
car and ordered the two to get out slowly. When the person in the
front passenger seat bent over, one of the officers fired shots
at the car.

"One of the bullets hit Sandra's abdomen," he recalled.

The officer who fired the shots is a second lieutenant from
the narcotics unit and is being interrogated by City Police
internal affairs, police sources said.

Sandra's husband, Wawan, said he was at first confused by the
sudden appearance of the gunmen but said he had no choice but to
follow their instruction to get out of the car.

He said it was not until after his wife was shot that the men
identified themselves as police officers.

"Even the officers were shocked when they learned that they
had shot a woman," recalled Wawan.

He said he knew nothing about A Hok or his alleged criminal
activities.

"I just learned all details of the grave misunderstanding from
the officers on our way to the hospital," he said.

Police said they believe A Hok intentionally gave false
information to the detectives.

City Police detectives chief Col. Alex Bambang Riatmojo on
Monday refused to comment on whether A Hok deserved to be further
charged in connection with the incident.

He only said that police had settled the accidental shooting
with Sandra's family.

According to Alex, the shooting was mainly caused by the
heightened pressure felt by police when dealing with suspected
criminals.

Alex added that the revolver found in A Hok's possession made
the detectives anxious that his suppliers would also be armed.

"If a mere trader has a gun, his boss must have brought a
better automatic gun," he said.

During his visit to the hospital on Tuesday, Maj. Gen.
Noegroho told Sandra's family that all the victim's medical bills
would be paid by the Jakarta Police, Wawan said.

"Besides asking for forgiveness and giving his word to pay all
the bills, Pak Noegroho also told my wife to calm down and said
prayers for her health," he said. (emf/bsr)