Malaysia probes police shooting of suspect amid allegations police use arms indiscriminately

Malaysia probes 3rd police shooting of suspect

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The Malaysian government opened an investigation Wednesday into the street shooting of a knife-wielding suspect and a bystander by police, who have repeatedly been accused of using firearms indiscriminately.

The shooting happened Sunday when policemen tried to stop a man who was fleeing after attacking a villager with a knife in the central Selangor state, the state’s police chief, Khalid Abu Bakar, said.

During the chase, police fired several shots, wounding the suspect and another villager, he said. Both are recovering in hospital.

Police are asking how the 22-year-old bystander was hit by a stray bullet in his rib cage. The four police officers involved remain on duty while the investigation is going on, Khalid said.

“We are probing whether all the procedures were followed before the shots were fired. … We want to take precautions so that this won’t recur,” Khalid said, adding the police force had been wrongly demonized.

Activists have long claimed police are too quick to open fire at allegedly armed suspects. Since 2007, police have shot dead more than 180 people.

But no special probes are known to have been ordered until last month when patrol police fatally shot and killed 14-year-old Aminulrasyid Amzah who was driving a car.

A 48-year-old patrol policeman was charged in that death Monday with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which is punishable by up to 30 years in jail. Police claim the boy tried to reverse his car into them when told to stop, but a friend who was in the vehicle denies that and says they were driving away.

Separately, another police officer in southern Negeri Sembilan state has been detained over Saturday’s shooting of a 17-year-old motorcyclist, who is recovering in a hospital after being hit in the stomach during a chase.

A panel set up by the government to monitor the police probe into Aminulrasyid’s case found guidelines on when to use firearms were adequate but training needed to be improved, the New Straits Times reported. A preliminary report is being tabled in Cabinet Wednesday.