Taxi driver killed on Bekasi toll road
JAKARTA (JP): A taxi driver was stabbed to death by two passengers on Bekasi Timur toll road on Saturday.
A police officer at the Bekasi Police precinct said the motive for the murder was unknown. However, he speculated that Dede Kuswara knew his attackers and a grudge was behind the killing. Dede was a driver for taxi company PT Centris Wahana.
The victim's wallet which contained money and personal documents was not stolen. The taxi was also left in good condition.
Quoting the manager at the taxi pool, police said that Dede had reported to the pool by radio that he was taking two passengers from Jl. Mergaya, Bekasi, to Bandung. Dede said he would travel on the toll road leading to Cikampek.
Dede did not stop the taxi when entering the toll gate and the tollbooth attendant called the attendants at the Cikampek toll gate to stop the taxi.
Two patrol officials of the tollway company PT Jasa Marga sped after the speeding cab.
About 10 minutes later, they found the cab stopped at the roadside with its left front tire flat.
The patrol officers found the driver dead in the cab with severe wounds to the stomach and neck and a blood-stained knife next to the body.
They then reported the matter to the police.
Police officers who arrived few minutes later said they believed the killers jumped over the fence of the toll road and entered a residential area.
Fellow drivers
Meanwhile, some of Dede's fellow drivers who visited Cipto Mangunkusumo general hospital's morgue refused to believe a grudge was the motive for the killing.
"Dede was a kind man. He did not have any enemies," one of the drivers told The Jakarta Post.
He said Dede looked pale before leaving the taxi pool and some friends told him not to work the day he was killed.
Dede worked as a Centris Wahana taxi driver for one and a half years.
Dede, a resident of Jl. Rawa Badak in Tanjung Priok district, North Jakarta, is survived by wife Uswati and three children.
Uswati said that her husband had recently complained about his health. "But he couldn't explain what he really felt," the 39- year-old widow said.
She said that their son Tomy, who has just graduated from a technical high school, asked her husband on Friday whether he should go to university or start working.
Tomy's younger sisters, Nursanti and Sani, still attend school.
The murder of Dede was the second murder this week. The first murder took place on Jl. Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta on Friday. A bajaj (small three-wheeled taxi) passenger, Sarwo Edy, was stabbed to death by three unidentified men while protecting a relative against robbery. His killers are also still at large. (jun)