SIBU: Local police chief ACP Shafie Ismail is unhappy with comments made by Sibu MP Wong Ho Leng and Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing over the recent shooting here.
“To me, both Tiong and Wong are trying to be heroes. They only know how to talk and complain about the police but don’t know how to help,” he said.
ACP Shafie also challenged both to furnish concrete proof.
In the noon incident last Saturday at a popular cafe in Jalan Pahlawan, 44-year-old Law Leh Kuong was shot at close range with a shotgun before dying of her injuries in a private hospital later.
The victim was the wife of businessman Lau Ngik Yin, 42, also known as Ah Kang.
Ah Kang is said to be involved in timber and entertainment business. The victim’s younger brother Lau Leh Hing, 42, was shot dead last Jan 11 in Jalan Brooke.
ACP Shafie said police believed the two cases could be related.
At the time of the shooting, the victim was having lunch with her husband, her husband’s cousin and his wife and another male friend.
Ah Kang was injured on his back while the cousin’s wife was injured on her left hand.
Police believed the target was Ah Kang, but stray pellets from a single shot hit his wife and critically injured her on her head.
Tiong’s comments in the Chinese newspapers suggested the killing was connected to illegal gambling activities here.
“To me, Tiong’s statement was not professional because it is only based on hearsay. Hearsay can’t be used as evidence in the court,” ACP Shafie stressed.
He urged Tiong to come forward if he had concrete evidence of the killing.
ACP Shafie also rebuked Wong, who is also Bukit Assek assemblyman and Sarawak DAP chairman, for saying the police here were ineffective and inefficient because they had to ask for assistance from their Kuching and Bukit Aman counterparts every time a serious crime occurred.
Wong said this could also indicate that police here were severely understaffed.
“Police need to collect solid evidence in serious cases like murder and we need to have modern equipment, which are only available in Kuching or Bukit Aman,” ACP Shafie explained.
“A murder case normally has a specific target and cases like these are not preventable,” ACP Shafie stressed, adding that politicians should not start pointing fingers at the police whenever a serious crime happened.
He said politicians should play a positive role in helping police combat and prevent crime.
“I want Wong and Tiong to contact me and tell me what they can do to educate the people not to get involved in criminal activities and how to be good citizens.”
He said so far neither of them had contacted him.
“I will not entertain them if they just complain about the police in the media,” ACP Shafie insisted.
He said by portraying Sibu as an unsafe and notorious town was damaging to the government, especially to its tourism industry.
To a question that Pelawan assemblyman David Wong suggested in his Facebook page that Sibu may need to change its top police personnel because there were so many serious crimes, ACP Shafie said: “My time will come when I have to go.”
“If I leave here, can anyone guarantee no more crimes will occur?” he asked.
ACP Shafie disclosed that police would work hard to solve the latest murder.
“We are looking at every angle. I personally also want to know who the killer is and what is the motive for the killing.”
He even said police would not hesitate to engage the help of a bomoh if one could help solve the case.
He said there was no eye-witness to the killing. CCTV footage from a nearby building only showed a red colour car suspected to be used in the shooting. The licence plate number and the killers could not be seen.
ACP Shafie disclosed that police had interviewed Ah Kang but had not taken down his statement. He said Ah Kang told police that he did not see anything when the shooting occurred.
*Source from The Star : http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/11/7/sarawak/12282773&sec=sarawak
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