Witness: Mob attacked car at temple riots, but later apologised

ADIB INQUEST

 | It was revealed today that a part of the mob at Seafield's Sri Maha Mariamman Temple who turned on a passer-by's car had apologised in the immediate aftermath of the attack and urged its owner to lodge a police report.

Marketing executive Chan Wei Jiet, 24, said he was a passenger in a Perodua Kancil driven by his mother's boyfriend at about 1.15am on Nov 27 last year.

The pair had been travelling home from USJ12 to USJ16, and had ended up stuck along Jalan Usaha USJ16.

The car was one of several vehicles hit by the reversing fire truck and Emergency Medical Rescue Services (EMRS) van along Jalan Usaha USJ16, at the height of the temple riots that night.

Recalling the moments following the collision, Chan said about 10 people who were part of a mob that initially attacked the fire truck continued to surround his car as he stood by the roadside to clean up bits of broken glass from the Kancil's broken windows.

He noted that his mother’s boyfriend, who he referred to as his uncle, was still in the car at the time.

"Uncle was still in the car and the people were still shouting at him," said Chan, who claimed that the crowd continued to attack the car with their bare hands, while some wielded sticks.

Chan claimed some people had shouted for them to leave while others dared them to get out of the car.

"One guy climbed up the bonnet," he said, adding that the older man then managed to exit the car.

Chan is the 19th witness in the inquest to determine the late firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim's cause of death.

"When I started to communicate with my uncle, one of them asked everyone to stop," said Chan to questions from inquest conducting officer Fatin Hadni Khairuddin.

To further questions, Chan said he was speaking in Mandarin at the time and had no idea why the mob suddenly ceased their attacks upon overhearing his conversation with the older man.

"They heard you speaking in Mandarin and then they stopped hitting your car?" clarified Fatin Hadni, to which Chan said, "Yes".

"After they stopped (attacking) there were three individuals who guided us back to our car.

"One was guiding my uncle, one was guiding me, and the last one was clearing the path for us," he further recalled.

"When we were leaving the scene, because all of our windows were broken...They (members of the crowd) were able to communicate with us.

"Most of them said sorry and some of them asked us to go to balai (police station) straight," said Chan.

He said the pair then drove to the nearest police station in USJ8, but there had been a computer system error so they only managed to lodge a report at SS15 police station.

Previous witnesses from the Subang Jaya Fire and Rescue Department had testified how the fire truck and EMRS van arrived on site at 1.12am to put out a burning car.

Adib, who was a medical officer, had been sitting in the front passenger seat of the EMRS van.

His colleagues had narrated how the fire truck reversed along Jalan Usaha USJ16 and collided with the EMRS van that trailed it, as well as into several other vehicles behind the van, in order to escape a mob coming from the temple’s direction.

The two vehicles left the scene in less than 20 minutes and headed towards the USJ8 police station, where a roll call conducted by Adib's superior at the time had confirmed his disappearance.

 Stay bid to be heard on Monday

Meanwhile, inquest conducting officer Hamdan Hamzah later informed Coroner Rofiah Mohamad that a stay application by the Save Seafield Mariamman Temple Task Force will be heard at the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya on Monday.

He also said the prosecution team would be submitting an affidavit to support their application to reject the stay on the inquest's proceedings.

The inquest proceedings initially scheduled for March 4 and March 5 have been cancelled in light of the stay application hearing.

The inquest is currently scheduled to resume for its 13th day of hearings on March 19.

On Feb 13, the temple task force had also filed an appeal against a High Court ruling that upheld the decision of the Coroner’s Court to reject the temple task force’s application to hold a watching brief at the inquest.

The hearing of the appeal has yet to be fixed. - Mkini