KLANG, Feb 18 — The gunman who was on the run after the February 8 shooting at a Setia Alam mall, but killed in a shootout with police in Pulau Ketam this morning, was planning to flee by boat to a neighbouring country.
The police ambush may have come in the nick of time as a restaurant operator in Pulau Ketam divulged the gunman's plan as he enquired about boat trips to Thailand after arriving on the island yesterday evening.
He said the gunman casually spoke about meeting up with his wife and child in Thailand.
"While buying food, the suspect informed that he had to choose a passage by sea because he could not fly there since his passport has been blacklisted.
"He said he wanted to see his wife and child because he missed them, maybe it has been a long separation," said the restaurant operator, who spoke anonymously to the press at the hotel in Pulau Ketam where the pre-dawn shootout took place.
Earlier, Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan confirmed that the gunman, who was in his 30s, was shot dead at 3am today in a raid by teams from the Bukit Aman and Selangor Criminal Investigation Departments, after tracking down the suspect since the shooting at the Berkenan shopping mall on the night of February 8.
The man, known as 'Ah Boy', committed five more crimes after the mall shooting in Shah Alam before fleeing to Pulau Ketam, an island half an hour away from Port Klang by boat ride.
Meanwhile, a hotel worker known only as Cha, 33, said the suspect checked into a hotel located near the jetty at 5.15pm yesterday wearing a hat and carrying a small plastic bag for luggage.
He said the gunman appeared nonchalant and aroused no suspicion as he was leisurely checking into a ground-floor room of the two-storey hotel.
"During the raid at around 3am, I was shocked after being jolted by the noise of a commotion and several gunshots on the ground floor of the hotel," Cha said.
He added that 12 guests and himself were in the dark about the police ambush unfolding before being ordered out of their hotel rooms.
Cha said the situation returned to normal in the hotel after police completed initial investigations and took the suspect's body away from the scene about six hours later.
— Bernama
