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)