Reckless cop shoots two girls to death

Reckless cop shoots two girls to death

Two girls, a toddler and a 12-year-old, were killed by stray
bullets shot by a plainclothes police officer who was chasing a
suspected criminal in the Taman Sari area of West Jakarta on
Monday afternoon.

Both girls died of their wounds before reaching the hospital.
Another woman remained seriously wounded, but alive.

Jakarta Police Chief Insp. Gen. Makbul Padmanagara immediately
made a personal apology to the families of the victims and the
local residents, promising to mete out severe punishment to the
policeman who is based at the West Jakarta police precinct.

"There is no need for an investigation of the case," Makbul
told reporters after praying at a mosque near to the scene.

Three-year-old Eli was with her mother Euis, 24, who was
selling noodles on the roadside, and their neighbor Ina, 12, when
the policeman suddenly came by chasing a man who the police say
is a suspected drug dealer.

The officer took out his pistol when the man shouted to the
crowd that he was being chased by a thief. The policeman fired a
warning shot in the air, but it was ignored by the man, according
to a witness named Budi from Tangerang.

The policeman then aimed in the general direction of the
fleeing suspect, but the bullet hit Eli in the face. The third
bullet fired hit Euis, the fourth hit Ina in the back. The fifth
bullet hit a power pole.

The girls were pronounced dead on arrival at nearby Husada
hospital, but Euis survived.

Detikcom reported that Eli would be buried in her hometown of
Kuningan, West Java, where the young family lived before coming
to Jakarta less than a month ago. As of late Monday night, family
members were still waiting for the body of Ina, who was the only
child of a food vendor Sutarman, to be brought home from the
morgue of Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital. --JP