Thursday July 8, 2010
Fleeing robber drowns in river
By MUGUNTAN VANAR
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KOTA KINABALU: A fleeing robber jumped into a river and drowned when 50 villagers chased him and his three accomplices. They had robbed a family near Sungai Meng_bong in Tuaran, about 35km from here. The dead suspect and one of his accomplice, who was eventually captured, tried crossing the river in a bid to escape from the villagers after the robbery at 7pm on Tuesday.
Police said the two could not swim and tried to make their way back to the river bank when one of them apparently drowned. The villagers pulled the other suspect to safety. Two other accomplices, however, managed to flee with cash, jewellery and a handphone. Tuaran police chief Deputy Supt Suhaimi Wiro said police believe that the suspects were not locals.
“We are trying to establish their identities and a hunt has been launched to track the escapees,” he said. He said a post mortem at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital confirmed that the dead suspect had drowned. The second suspect is in police custody. Robbery victim Lamiah Ramli, 50, said that when the masked robbers entered the house, two of her daughters managed to flee by jumping out of a window and alerting neighbours.
“They were holding me at knife point and took me to the rooms upstairs. I took them to an empty room. “One of my daughters jumped out from another room while another hid and made a call for help,” said Lamiah, who was with four children in the house. She said the robbers confronted her and two other children with a parang and then tied them with raffia string.
“I immediately gave my jewelery, a handphone and some cash as they had a parang placed on my neck,” she said. The robbers fled when they heard villagers outside. A villager, Saini Kasim, who was among the first at the scene, said one of the robbers tried to stab him but he fended off the attack with a parang. They fled towards the river by which time other villagers came and caught one of the robbers.
