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