04/06/2015

The Shangri-La Shootout

Singapore police shoot dead man near Shangri-La summit
A bullet hole could be seen in the windscreen of the car involved in the incident as it was towed away 

Singapore police say they have killed a man and detained two others near a hotel hosting a top-level international security conference.

Defence ministers and leaders from the Asia-Pacific region were at the summit, known as The Shangri-La Dialogue.

Police say they opened fire after a car rammed through police barricades.


It was under special circumstances
AFTERMATH: (Below) The damaged Subaru Impreza being towed away

Police officers did a praiseworthy job in handling the incident near Shangri-La Hotel, said security experts and former policemen.

At about 4.30am yesterday, the police opened fire at a car when its driver ignored warnings and crashed through a police vehicular checkpoint set up along Ardmore Park.

The driver of the car, a 34-year-old Singaporean man, died. Two other Singaporean men, aged 26 and 31, who were with him were arrested.



Passengers in shooting case near Shangri-La Hotel charged with heroin trafficking
A damaged red car with a bullet hole on its windscreen is being towed away in Singapore near the Shangri-La hotel on May 31, 2015. Two passengers in the car that crashed through police barriers near the Shangri-la Hotel in the wee hours of Sunday were charged in court with heroin trafficking on Monday. -- PHOTO: AFP

Two passengers in the car that crashed through police barriers near the Shangri-La Hotel in the wee hours of Sunday were charged in court with heroin trafficking on Monday.

Mohamed Ismail, 31, and Muhammad Syahid Mohamed Yasin, 26, were both charged with possessing three packets of approximately 9g of heroin for the purpose of trafficking.

The men will be remanded for a week to facilitate investigations into possible further offences. 

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DECEASED WIFE: IS THE POLICE JUSTIFIED TO SHOOT DEAD MY HUSBAND BECAUSE HE RUN AWAY?

The alleged wife of the man shot dead in the Shangri-La dash through incident has spoken up. In a Facebook post to the Singapore Police Force FB page, the woman who goes by the moniker Fifi Divinez (Nassida Nasir) questioned if the police is justified to shoot dead her husband with a M-16 rifle just because he tried to escape. According to her, her husband tried to escape the road block because he was driving without a valid license.

This was what she posted on SPF's Facebook page:

"Good Job To SPF yes ..and now tell me i am his Wife.My Name is Nassida Nasir .So tell me is it justify of the law to shot dead right on my husband head just because he tried to run away? Well people the real reason is bcoz he drove away and hit the barricades due to he did not have a driving license ! So is this how he will be punished ? And if it is a high security and professionals ones , they should know whether they hit a real terrorist. And here i am , with my 2months new born baby living without a father ! Who was scared and running away without a driving license and punished in terrible way ! So tell me if it was your husband can u live everyday without thinking of the incident !"

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Wife of man shot by police says they were planning new life together
Ms Nassida Nasir (above) said Mohamed Taufik Zahar stormed off after they argued just after midnight on Sunday, taking a car she had rented. -- ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

AT 4.20AM on Sunday, Ms Nassida Nasir woke up in panic.

Her husband, Mohamed Taufik Zahar, was not at home as they had argued - and something felt wrong.

Frantic, the 32-year-old starting calling and texting him.


What went wrong or right in the Shangri-La roadblock shooting?

In light of the incident where a man who was trying to flee a roadblock was shot dead there has been much speculation as to the police protocol and concerns on the justification for the police to use deadly force under such circumstances.

While this is a rightful concern and one that should be discussed, it is necessary to appreciate the context in this case to understand the situation fully. When all is said and done, the truth here is that this was an extremely rare and very unfortunate confluence of factors but something that could not have been avoided.

First of all, the police protocols that are in place – be it for roadblocks or otherwise – are there to ensure safety and security as a foremost priority. The police are certainly not looking to kill people. In fact, it is in the best interests of officers to ensure nobody dies on their watch because it is an extremely traumatic aftermath for an officer who has discharged his weapon, let alone killed someone using deadly force.

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Resourceful CNA journalist ‘selfie reports’ shooting incident near Shangri-la hotel

Channel NewsAsia (CNA) has scored possibly a world’s first with its reporting of the shooting incident along Orange Grove Road.

With the public and the media hungry for more details about the incident, CNA’s Pichayada Promchertchoo resourcefully stepped forward to do so.

Using the mundane road closure image as her backdrop, the international digital reporter spiced up the coverage with possibly the world’s first selfie-reporting:

S’poreans react to fatal shooting near Shangri-La Hotel

A man was shot dead and two others were detained in an incident at 4.36 am on Sunday near the Shangri-La hotel, where the ongoing Shangri-La Dialogue is being held. This after the driver suddenly accelerated the vehicle crashing through police barricades towards Anderson Road after being asked to open the car boot for checks.

Substances believed to be drugs were later found on one of the persons detained.

Here are three thoughts Singaporeans have:


Wife of man shot dead at Shangri-La claims hubby was only driving without licence

Wife of man shot dead at Police checkpoint blames SPF -- claiming that hubby was only driving without licence 

The wife of the man who was shot dead by police for ramming through a security checkpoint near Shangri-La hotel on May 31 is blaming the cops' actions.

Nassida Nasir ranted in a post to the Singapore Police Force's (SPF) Facebook, claiming that her husband was only trying to run because he had no license.

She wrote: "Good Job To SPF yes ..and now tell me i am his Wife.My Name is Nassida Nasir .So tell me is it justify of the law to shot dead right on my husband head just because he tried to run away?



Shooting near Shangri-La Hotel: Police did the right thing 

The case of police officers shooting at the car that rammed against road blocks at a secured venue showed the decisiveness of the men in charge (“Police shoot man dead near Shangri-La Hotel”; June 1).

The Singapore Police Force should not make any apologies. This is not a case of a roadblock to sniff out drink-driving, where if a similar action were to occur, there would at best have been a car chase. This was a high-security meeting of top defence chiefs at the Shangri-La Dialogue. Instead of consenting to the security check, the driver breached the checkpoint, ignored repeated warnings and did not stop.

The only conclusion at the time and place must have been a probable terrorist attack; stopping the car and disabling the passengers would have been a must. And if it were such, aiming at the tyres would have been a mistake.



Shangri-La Shooting: And the use of lethal force by police

In a rare incident, the police have shot dead the driver of a car near Shangri-La Hotel, and arrested two others.

The Straits Times reports in "Shangri-La shooting: Terrorism ruled out" (1 June 2015):
  • THE failed breach of a security checkpoint barely 250m from the venue of the Shangri-La Dialogue yesterday morning, when one man was shot dead and two arrested, may have eventually been found to be drug-related.
  • But "police did the right thing, ever vigilant to the fact that this could have been a terrorist plot", said Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen.
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