Police shoot, kill three criminals

Police shoot, kill three criminals

JAKARTA (JP): Police shot dead three suspected street bandits
in the early hours of Monday, bringing to 11 the number of
alleged criminals killed by the police since a crackdown on crime
was launched late last month.

Jakarta Police spokesman Lt. Col. Edward Aritonang said the
suspected criminals were all shot dead after they attacked police
officers and attempted to resist arrest.

"The officers fired warning shots after the criminals were
caught red-handed. They ignored the shots and tried to attack the
policemen," Aritonang told reporters on Monday.

Two of the three alleged criminals were shot dead in North
Jakarta, while the third died in East Jakarta, he said.

The North Jakarta victims were identified as Parno, 27, and
Taryo, 25. Both were residents of the capital.

The two were part of a gang of six men spotted taking money at
knife point from a 25-year-old woman who was traveling on a
public minivan in the Teluk Gong area of North Jakarta at about
11:45 p.m. on Sunday night.

When the officers intervened and asked the gang to surrender,
they sprinted of in different directions.

Parno and Taryo were shot dead and three of their accomplices
were detained. The arrested men were identified as Ahmad Sofyan,
28, Daskub, 31, and Syamsudin, 20.

"The sixth member of the gang is still at large," Aritonang
said.

Police believe the gang were responsible for a number of
robberies committed on public vehicles plying the Jl. Teluk Naga-
Cengkareng route in West Jakarta.

Police seized two machetes, one knife, a gold ring and Rp
40,000 (US$5) in cash from the suspects, Aritonang said.

The man shot dead in East Jakarta was identified as Sawira
alias Maman, 25.

Police said that Maman allegedly grabbed Rp 100,000 from a
female street vendor in front of the Ramayana department store in
Kramat Jati.

Maman was shot once in the back and died at the scene of the
crime.

Amid growing public outrage at the rising tide of crime in the
capital, the Jakarta Police backed up by troops from the Jakarta
Military Command launched a belated crackdown on the city's
underworld on Nov. 23.

Patrols of police and soldiers have since been assigned to
guard certain street junctions and stretches of toll road
throughout the capital.

On Saturday, another suspected criminal identified as
Baharudin was shot dead after he attacked police officers with a
sword.

Aritonang said that Baharudin was part of a gang suspected of
robbing a jewelry counter in a Matahari department store in
Cipulir, South Jakarta.

"The gang fled when police first arrived on the scene, but
then Baharudin ran back toward the officers brandishing a sword,"
he said.

Also late on Saturday, police shot and wounded a vagrant
suspected of robbing a woman on Jl. Latumeten in West Jakarta.

The man, identified as Sunaryo, was shot once in the buttock
and was taken to Soekanto Police Hospital in East Jakarta for
medical treatment.

"Police confiscated a machete and Rp 16,000 he was believed to
have taken from the victim," Aritonang said. (emf)