GOMBAK: A police stop in Selayang early in the morning turned deadly after three Rohingya robbery suspects were shot dead in a shootout with the cops.
Selangor police chief Comm Datuk Hussein Omar Khan said police spotted the suspects yesterday, now dubbed the “Rantau Fiesta Gang”, acting suspiciously while on patrol in the area.
The patrol team then instructed the driver of the car to stop.
“The driver initially refused to cooperate.
“Then during the inspection, the suspects in the car acted aggressively and fired shots at the police,” he said.
The suspects fired three shots towards the police, leading to a shootout.
The three suspects were killed in the shootout while no policemen were injured.
“The suspects were in their 30s and two were carrying United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cards.
“The third man was found to be part of a Rohingya group that had been involved in home break-ins and robberies since 2011.
“He had around 12 previous criminal records, mostly for robbery.
“He had also been arrested and jailed in 2016 and 2017,” Comm Hussein said.
Investigations are still under way to determine whether the other two gang members had been as active.
Police are also in the midst of verifying if the UNHCR cards belonged to them or someone else.
“We need to verify this with UNHCR, including taking their fingerprints and checking whether or not it is indeed them or it is the identity of someone else,” he said.
Police investigations showed that the group had been involved in about 50 cases nationwide, with 27 robbery and burglary cases in Selangor this year.
Their last known burglary was on Dec 8 where they stole several luxury watches in Batang Kali, leading to losses of around RM445,000.
In Selangor, losses linked to the gang have been estimated to be around RM1.3mil this year alone.
Their modus operandi involved the group targeting empty houses.
No victims had been reported injured in the cases linked to the group.
