Thursday January 12, 2012

Pub owner shot at point-blank

SIBU: A 41-year-old pub owner was shot at point-blank while entering an office equipment supplier's shop at Brooke Drive in yet another murder case in town.

The mafia-style shooting yesterday was carried out in broad daylight with Lau Leh Ing taking 10 pellets on his back.

In the 10.30am incident, Lau and a friend had just arrived in his new Toyota Land Cruiser.

They were stepping into the supplier's shop at when he was hit.

According to James Ling, the shop owner, Lau was shot in the back when walking behind his friend.

His friend was spared.

“I heard the deceased shouting Aiyo! Aiyo!' before he collapsed by the door,” Ling said.

Lau died while on the way to a private specialist centre from “one or two shots” that hit him.

Several people patronising a coffeeshop across the road, apparently drawn by the shooting, rushed over.

When words spread about the murder, the shop that sells mostly safe deposit boxes and weighing machines became a centre of attraction.

Police investigators together with some Rela personnel were seen combing the immediate area for evidence.

Sibu district police chief ACP Shafie Ismail was tight-lipped when reporters pressed him for information.

Bukit Assek assemblyman Wong Ho Leng and his Pelawan counterpart, Yap Hoi Liong, were among the town's bigwigs seen at the crime scene. With them was their DAP comrade Alice Lau.

The victim operated a pub in Lane 1, Jalan Lanang here. Last October, his residence in Jalan Salim was the target of a drive-by shooting.

Lau's killing came hardly a week after the gruesome murder of a businessman, his two children and his mother.

Police on Friday said they had solved the case with the arrest of the prime suspect, a 17-year-old neighbour, but did little to allay fears of folk against violent crimes in the town.

State Commissioner of Police Datuk Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani said based on initial investigation, three men were seen leaving the scene seconds after the killing in a silver Proton Saga.

More News