Three alleged car thieves shot to death

JAKARTA (JP): Detectives shot dead three alleged members of the city's most wanted gang after a street chase along Jl. Cilincing near the National Bonded Zones in North Jakarta early yesterday.

City police spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang said the officers were forced to shoot the three car thieves after they resisted arrest and attacked the officers with sharp weapons.

Aritonang said the men -- identified as Muradi alias Togok, 40, Suwarto alias Daryo, 35, and Supriyanto alias Supri, 33 -- had been involved in a series of vehicle and armed robberies in recent years.

Police confiscated a blue Kijang van (plate number B 1618 DI) which the men used in the car chase, a sickle, a pair of handcuffs, plastic tape and ropes. All the evidence is being stored at Jakarta Police Headquarters.

Aritonang said the three were members of a car theft ring, known as Togok's gang, which comprised eight con men and whose operations focused on Greater Jakarta.

"The death of the three means we still have to look for the other five suspects.

"One of their accomplices managed to escape during yesterday's chase. We don't know his identity but we're now tracking him down.

"The suspects seemed to realize that the police were chasing them. That's why they run away and went mad when the officers tried to arrest them."

On Thursday, Jakarta Police arrested a woman, identified as OSA alias Shinta, 23 -- who is a member of another gang -- at her house in Margasari village, Jayamukti subdistrict, Purwakarta, West Java.

"Based on what she told us, we acquired several names of members of Togok's gang," he said, adding that Shinta was also involved in a series of vehicle thefts.

The police seized a Kijang van (plate number B 1207 GT) which had been used by Shinta and Togok's gang in their operations.

Members of the gang were spread across Greater Jakarta, with Togok living in East Bekasi, Daryo in Semper, North Jakarta, and Supri in Sumur Batu, Central Jakarta.

"They used beepers to communicate and to set their meeting places. We also learned that they were also involved in several armed robberies," Aritonang said.

The gang staged the robberies if they were bored of doing vehicle thefts, Aritonang quoted Shinta as saying.

South Jakarta Police had recovered 18 Kijang vans which had been stolen by Togok's gang and resold in the first three months of this year, Shinta said.

Police data reveals that the gang had been involved in 38 incidents of vehicle theft and six armed robberies since 1996.

The fatal shooting of the three suspects raised to 14 the toll of people killed by police in the city this year.

Among the victims was a 15-year-old student who was accidentally shot in the head by police during a street brawl in Central Jakarta and a man who was shot on Jan. 14 after allegedly stealing a motorcycle in West Jakarta. (edt)