Three suspects shot dead by police officers

Three suspects shot dead by police officers

JAKARTA (JP): City police have shot to death three criminal
suspects, one believed to have raped a night-shift employee after
dragging her off a bus.

According to the East Jakarta police the three were shot as
they tried to flee an on-the-spot investigation of their case and
attack police personnel.

The suspected rapist, identified as Tony Matondang, 30, was
arrested last week for allegedly taking part in a gang rape of a
27-year-old female employee of a private company. Tony was shot
dead when he tried to get away from the East Jakarta police at
around 2 a.m. yesterday in the Duren Sawit area.

Police said that at their request Tony was showing them the
whereabouts of other rapists, who were also involved in the
robbery of passengers of a bus parked in front of a private
university in Cawang, East Jakarta, late last month.

The gang members were notorious extortionists of public bus
drivers in the area, the police said.

Tony and his nine accomplices initially intended to rob the
passengers of the bus which parked in front of the campus every
night, serving as a drop-off point for the bus firm's night-shift
employees and pick-up point for the morning-shift workers living
in the city.

Besides robbing the employees of their valuables, Tony and one
of his friends, who is still at large, dragged the only woman
among the employees off the bus and raped her in a nearby bush.

Tony had reportedly confessed his attack of the woman and
promised to show the officers the whereabouts of his accomplices.

Jail bird

The second suspect, identified as Encas, was shot dead by the
South Jakarta police Sunday evening as he tried to resist arrest
and attack the officers.

According to the police, Encas was a repeated offender.

"He was just released from the prison about two weeks earlier
and has committed two robberies during a very short period," said
South Jakarta police chief Lt. Col. Adang Rismanto.

Encas was nabbed along with three members of his gang, who are
believed to have been involved in at least two recent burglaries
in South Jakarta.

The third suspect was identified as Topo, who was arrested
together with four other culprits. His gang is believed to
specialize in breaking into empty houses in the Kebayoran Baru
area of South Jakarta.

Police, however, have no detailed information about the
shooting.

"We didn't need to shoot them but it happens," said Adang.

Topo was found with bullet wounds in Simpruk, South Jakarta,
recently. The police did not elaborate.

After the investigation, police also found that one of Topo's
accomplices had been involved in the recent murder of an
extortionist in Semarang, Central Java. (bsr)