Witnesses, police give conflicting reports on shooting
Witnesses, police give conflicting reports on shooting
JAKARTA (JP): Witnesses and police have given conflicting
accounts in the fatal shooting of a schoolboy on Wednesday night
near the Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) dormitory in Central
Jakarta.
Some said his death occurred in a brawl, but others claimed he
was killed when students tried to storm the dormitory on Jl. K.S.
Tubun.
Police have yet to arrest a suspect in the shooting, but an
officer and eyewitnesses said the shooter was in police uniform.
Syaifuddin, 19, of Bhakti Pertiwi senior high school in
Kedoya, West Jakarta, died after he was shot in the back and the
bullet pierced his left lung, Central Jakarta Police chief of
detectives Maj. Budiono Sandi said.
"The boy was reportedly shot by a police officer who was at
the scene of the brawl. But we don't know who the man is,"
Budiono said.
Syaifuddin died at about 9 p.m., about 15 minutes after he was
shot in the area on the borderline between Central and West
Jakarta.
Two students, Atip, 16, and Herman, 18, were still detained at
the West Jakarta Police Station for questioning on Thursday.
West Jakarta Police chief Lt. Col. Adjie Rustam Ramdja and
chief of detectives Maj. Idham could not be reached for comment.
A local satay vendor said the incident began at about 7 p.m.
when a group of about 10 students proceeded from the direction of
Slipi toward another group of students coming from the other
direction.
"Right in front of the police dormitory, members of the two
groups started fighting and throwing rocks at each other," the
man who asked for anonymity told The Jakarta Post.
He said the area was frequently the site of student brawls.
"These student brawls keep on happening here and we are sick
of it. Police officers living in the dormitory are sick of it,
too."
He said he saw only one uniformed police officer riding a
motorcycle during the brawl.
"That's what I saw. That boy was shot in front of the Sakura
photocopy shop, across from the dormitory.
"But please don't ask me anything else."
Running
A local resident, Doni, said an unidentified police officer
tried to break up the fight by firing warning shots.
"One of those shots, however, hit the boy. After the boy was
shot, he got up and started running toward my house on Jl.
Petamburan III. He fell on the road in front of it," Doni said.
"Some residents brought him in. He died shortly afterwards."
Another local resident, Abdul Ali, gave a different account.
He said the incident was related to the arrest of two students
after a brawl earlier Wednesday.
"In the first brawl, two students -- Herman and Atip -- were
arrested by the West Jakarta Police. The second happened when the
friends of Herman and Atip ran toward the police dormitory to
demand their release," Ali said.
"When police officers at the dormitory saw them coming, one of
them came out and fired several warning shots, one of which hit
the boy."
Jakarta Police spokesman Lt. Col. Zainuri Lubis agreed with
Ali's statement.
"That's the correct version," he said.
At 9 p.m. on Thursday, some 150 youths believed to be friends
of the victim flocked to the Brimob dormitory.
Tension rose when local teenagers surrounded the young
visitors. Scores of security officers were hastily deployed to
the site.
After the intervention of senior members of the Muslim
Defenders Front (FPI), the students -- most of them still attired
in their uniform of gray pants -- agreed to leave the scene in a
public minibus. (04/ylt)