Police nab parang-wielding robber seeking refuge in police station

 

A man who committed two robberies using a 68-centimetre long parang was nabbed yesterday when he rode a hijacked motorcycle into the grounds of the Tawau police station to escape from a crowd in hot pursuit.

Tawau district police chief Peter Umbuas said the suspect, aged 27, was detained by the police at 8.10am, 20 minutes after the parang-wielding man robbed a man of his Modenas GT motorcycle in Jalan Tawau Lama.

"The victim asked for help from passersby to chase the suspect, but the suspect, who had hijacked his motorcycle, managed to evade them until he entered the grounds of the Tawau police station and was detained with his parang,” he said in a statement today.

He said the suspect had also robbed a man driving a Nissan Frontier on Jalan Tanjung Batu Darat, using the parang earlier at 7am.

"The suspect then escaped with the victim’s vehicle towards Jalan Tawau Lama, but the vehicle ran out of fuel at the Jalan Tawau Lama roundabout forcing the suspect to abandon the vehicle at the side of the road,” he said.

Peter said a remand order would be made against the suspect under Section 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code at the Tawau Magistrate Court for further investigation.

Initial investigation revealed that he used the same modus operandi for both robberies, by brandishing the parang to force the victims to stop and hijacking their vehicles to make his escape,” he said.

He added that the suspect had previously been detained four times since 2014 for drug abuse.

- Bernama