Security guard captured for killing employee

JAKARTA (JP): Police have captured the man they believe to have killed a man and injured several others at a chemical factory on Sunday.

Maj. Tjok Made Suyasa, chief of Cakung district police, said yesterday that Kasmari, 36, was apprehended at his home in Cakung district at around 8 p.m. Monday.

Kasmari, who had worked as a "special" security guard at PT Surya Agung Makmur Lestari, allegedly killed Husein, a driver of the factory, and wounded six other drivers and conductors Monday morning.

The suspect is not a military officer as reported earlier.

Tjok was quoted by Maj. Tasmin S., a spokesman for the city police headquarters, as saying that Kasmari had previously been a tough who extorted money daily from the drivers before being hired by the factory as a security guard two years ago.

The factory apparently believed that by bringing him into the fold he would help protect the drivers.

As reported earlier, Kasmari interrogated drivers Husein and friends Monday morning at the factory in an effort to locate the person responsible for the loss of certain documents from one of the factory's trucks. The documents were reported missing last Friday.

A soothsayer had advised Kasmari to force the drivers to drink a glass of water before interrogating them, saying that they could be expected to confess their guilt.

The anonymous paranormal reasoned that the driver who had lost the document would suffer a swollen stomach if he kept lying.

However, after drinking the water, the drivers remained healthy while they denied responsibility for the loss.

Frustrated, Kasmari then brutally attacked the drivers one by one with a knife, killing Husein, seriously wounding Ateng, who is Husein's brother, and slightly injuring others.

Tjok said the factory's management denied responsibility for the brutal act because Kasmari had acted on his own initiative. (jsk)