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)