Yoji Amashiro pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a weapon in public and one charge of causing hurt to a public servant. - Photo: court documents
SINGAPORE: A man pulled a knife on a stranger at a shop on the ground level of a Housing Board block because he thought the stranger was staring at him.
The man later bit a police officer during his arrest, as he believed he was being treated unjustly.
On Wednesday (Sept 25), Yoji Amashiro pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a weapon in public and another of causing hurt to a public servant.
Amashiro, 30, was sentenced to a year and 120 days’ jail along with six strokes of the cane.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Hidayat Amir said Amashiro, a Singapore national, was at a shop in Buangkok Link at around 6pm on March 29.
At the same time, a 35-year-old man had just collected a parcel at the shop and was talking to an employee.
As Amashiro was leaving the shop, he felt the man was staring at him. He pulled out a flip knife with a 6.5cm-long blade, pointed it at the man and asked him “if he had a problem”.
The man shook his head and said “no”, to which Amashiro replied “good” before leaving the store.
The man called the police to report the incident.
Police Sergeant Muhammad Yusuf Abdul Wahab responded to the call and arrived at Buangkok Square Park around 6.50pm.
Sgt Yusuf and six other officers saw Amashiro and went to his flat to speak with him.
As the officers were interviewing him, Amashiro started screaming and gesticulating angrily at the officers, DPP Amir said.
Five officers proceeded to restrain Amashiro, who was struggling and resisting the officers. Sgt Yusuf held Amashiro’s head to control him, but Amashiro turned and bit the officer’s right index finger.
The sergeant pulled his hand away from Amashiro’s mouth, then handcuffed and arrested him.
In his sentencing submissions, DPP Amir said Amashiro had threatened a stranger with a knife because he believed the man was staring at him, showing his cavalier attitude towards using a knife as a weapon.
He added that Amashiro had previously been sentenced to four weeks’ jail in July 2019 after he was caught armed with a foldable knife with a 5cm-long blade.
The DPP also disagreed with Amashiro’s lawyer, Azeera Ali from the Public Defender’s Office, that the bite had caused only minor harm.
Azeera had argued that the bite left Sgt Yusuf with only a superficial wound, without any evidence of long-lasting damage
She said: “There was no premeditation. He had not intended to bite the officer; it was a rash act done in the chaos of the arrest to right the injustice he believed was being done to him.”
Azeera said Amashiro had wanted to show the officers where the knife was but felt it was difficult as he was being restrained.
In a separate case, Mohammad Ridzuan Rohaizat was charged on Sept 17 after he sped away from Traffic Police officers at 106kmh on the KPE.
Ridzuan, 31, then crashed his car into a metal pole in Punggol Central, and fled on foot but was caught by the officers.
While they were trying to detain him, he bit one of them on the left arm. - The Straits Times/ANN
