Police claim they are on to Kedaung robbers
JAKARTA (JP): Police claimed yesterday they are close to arrests in the case of the masked thugs who gunned down a resident of Ciputat, Tangerang and seriously injured his brother, in a robbery on Wednesday.
"It's just a matter of time. We will arrest them as soon as we have evidence because we know their identities and their addresses," said Lt. Col. Adang Rismanto, chief of the South Jakarta police precinct, which also oversees the Ciputat area.
Informed sources said the police have questioned seven people as witnesses to the robbery.
The robbers, armed with two handguns and sharp weapons, broke into a two-story house owned by Nurdin at the Kedaung village in Serua Indah subdistrict in Ciputat, Tangerang, around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Sources and relatives of the victims said that before moving to Kedaung three months ago, the family sold their 18-square- meter plot in Cipete Utara for Rp 200 million (US$93,200), which they spent to build a new house in Serua and buy motorcycles as well as a plot of land.
They strongly believe the robbers were after the money, thinking the family still had it.
The robbers left only with a 12-gram gold bracelet and necklace, worth less than Rp 1 million (US$465).
Apparently unhappy with their haul and the fierce struggle from the victim's family members, the robbers gunned down Nurdin's second son, Abdulchair, 30, and seriously injured his brother, Ahmad Gozali, 28.
Recovery
A nurse at Fatmawati hospital in South Jakarta, where Gozali is being treated, said yesterday that doctors had successfully taken the bullet from Gozali's stomach.
"He was transferred from the ICU (intensive care unit) ward this afternoon," the nurse said.
Since the incident Wednesday, Gozali was in critical condition at the hospital.
City police spokesman Lt. Col. A. Latief Rabar also indicated progress on the investigation of the robbery.
"The case is beginning to become a little bit clear to us but we have yet to reach a final conclusion," Latief said.
An officer from the Serua Indah subdistrict administration office has urged Nurdin, almost 53, and his family to temporarily move from their house for fear that the group may come back to kill members of the family because they might already know the gang's identities.
Nurdin, however, refused to accept the appeal, saying that he did not fear to face the death threat because he is quite old.
"Let me die here at my own house if I am destined to do so," he told the Post.
According to his neighbors, Kedaung police subprecinct sent guards to Nurdin's house after the robbery, but that the officers only guard the house until 3 a.m.
"We're also afraid and wary because the robbers may come back here at any time and kill any of Nurdin's neighbors, whom they think could help the police identify them," a neighbor said.
Many of Nurdin's neighbors, hearing his appeal for help, rushed out of their houses during the robbery that evening, but they could not do anything as the armed robbers threatened to kill them. (bsr/anr)