INQUEST | Police presence prevented a hostile crowd from approaching firefighters deployed from Subang Jaya Fire Station to put out a car on fire near the Seafield Seri Maha Mariamman temple riot scene, an inquest was told today.
Mohd Hazim Mohd Rahimi, 31, the sixth witness in the inquest to determine firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim's cause of death, said he was assigned for duty from 8pm last Nov 26 to 8am the following day.
Prior to being deployed to the riot scene at 1.02am on Nov 27, Hazim said he was involved in an earlier operation at 10.53pm on Nov 26 to put out a burning car at the parking lot of the USJ Hicom tollgate, the first scene of disturbance.
Hazim said there was a crowd there similar to the temple riot site, but police on duty had kept them away from firefighters.
"There was a crowd (at the parking lot) […] but at the time there was a police presence. They (the crowd) were loud, some of them were on motorcycles […] but there were police," he said.
This, he added, was unlike the later operation where there was no police presence.
"Do you agree if I conclude that civilians were not allowed to get near the firefighters because of police presence?" asked lawyer Shazlin Mansor to which Hazim agreed.
"And in the 1am incident the civilians (mob) could come close because there was no police presence?" asked Shazlin to which Hazim once again said he agreed.
Hazim said the Subang Jaya Fire Station comprised three teams and all of them were involved in a post-mortem briefing after the temple riot incident.
Aside from the two operations he was involved in, Hazim said he found out that the two other teams were also met with hostile crowds including one that was deployed for an incident involving 18 burning cars on Nov 26.
"They (the other teams' members) said civilians prevented them from putting out the fires. But there were FRU and police personnel.
"Once the situation has calmed down, they managed to put out the fires," he said.
Adib, who was attached to the Subang Jaya fire station, died on Dec 17 while receiving treatment at the National Heart Institute for injuries sustained during the riot near the temple.
The dates for the inquest before Coroner Rofiah Mohamad are from Feb 11 to 28; March 1, 4, 5 and 19 to 29; and April 1 to 12.
The deputy public prosecutors handling the inquest are Hamdan Hamzah, Faten Hadni Khairuddin and Zhafran Rahim Hamzah.
Adib's family is represented by a team of five lawyers, namely Mohd Kamaruzaman A Wahab, Ahmad Taufiq Baharum, Ahmad Lutfi Awang, Mohd Zubir Embong, and Mohd Tajuddin Abdul Razak.
Syazlin represents the Housing and Local Government Ministry and the Fire and Rescue Services Department.
-Mkini
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