Sarawak police commissioner Mazlan Mansor said today the shooting was committed on the same day that NCR land activist Bill Kayong was shot dead in Miri.

In a statement here, he said that while it appeared that police were focusing on the Miri case, police had also spared no effort in trying to solve the Bau killing.

In the Bau case, a 36-year-old man was shot in his head by an unknown person while in his lorry with a friend at a secluded dirt road, he said.

His friend immediately sent the victim to the nearest hospital but the man succumbed to his injuries the next day.

Mazlan said yesterday, three suspects were arrested at separate times and at different locations.

The first suspect, a 40-year-old man, was arrested by the state’s D9 team led by ASP Francis anak Boniface Barau at Taman Dahlia in Matang at 4.30am.

“At 2.15pm today, he led the investigation team to recover a shotgun hidden in the bushes behind his house at Kampung Selarat in Sematan in Lundu. Also recovered were eight shotgun bullets.

“We believe it is the same shotgun that was used to shoot the victim,” he said.

Mazlan said the second suspect, a 42-year-old man was arrested by another D9 team led by ASP Lawrence anak Rawieng at Taman Samajaya at 4.35am.

“He was caught hiding in the ceiling of his flat,” he said.

The third suspect, also 42-years-old, was arrested by a D8 team under ASP Shuib Abdul Samat at Tabuan Melayu  here, he added.

“The trio are now under remand for seven days with effect from yesterday afternoon to facilitate investigation.

“The case is considered solved with the arrests and the recovery of the murder weapon. We have established the motive but are unable to divulge further details as this stage so as not to jeopardise our investigation,” he added.

Mazlan said the delay had been due to long meticulous investigations by a taskforce under state CID chief, SAC Dev Kumar.

“We investigated the case from several angles including the victim being hit by a stray bullet from a hunter. The other was the deliberate killing of the victim,” he said.

“I congratulate the task force under Dev for solving the case and bringing closure for the family,” he said.

He said the state police too had successfully solved two other murder cases that occurred in Sibu and Miri (Bill Kayong’s case) this year.