Repeat offender fatally shot for resisting arrest

JAKARTA (JP): A much-sought after recidivist, who had been in jail eight times since 1982, was shot to death by city police in the wee hours yesterday.

City Police spokesman Lt. Col. A. Latief Rabar said that Sugeng, 31, was gunned down when he tried to escape during a raid in Karet Tengsin, Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta.

"After firing two warning shots, the officers in charge had no other choice but to shoot his leg and back," Latief said.

He said that Sugeng was still alive after the shots, but died on the way to the Kramat Jati police hospital in East Jakarta.

Based on the tentative investigation of the Tanah Abang police sub-precinct, Sugeng was strongly believed to have committed a robbery with his friend, Suwarno, 25, in a house in Karet Tengsin on Thursday. Suwarno, who broke into the house, was beaten to death by area residents, while Sugeng, who was waiting outside the house, was able to run away.

Based on information from Suwarno before his death, police managed to arrest Sugeng on Sunday at his parents' house in Petukangan Utara, South Jakarta.

During questioning, police said that Sugeng had confessed committing another robbery with his friend, Jo'i, in the same area last July.

Later, police asked him to show the whereabouts of his friend and the place where he hid a television set he stole in the July robbery.

"Seconds after they arrived at the place police asked Sugeng to walk before them, when he took advantage of the opportunity to run away in the cover of the dark," Latief said.

Police data shows that he had been imprisoned at least eight times since 1982 for various criminal acts, including robberies and illegal possession of guns and heroin, the spokesman said.

The Tanah Abang police also claim that they had recently received nine reports of criminal acts which were believed to have been committed by this repeated offender and his friends. (bsr)