Cheras Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) officer ASP Shuhaimi Yaakub, the 21st witness, said today he had received instructions from Bukit Aman to go to the Seafield temple in Subang Jaya around 9.20pm on Nov 26.
His team from the Cheras FRU, along with the Bravo 4 unit, totalling 115 officers, was equipped with a land rover, weapons and water cannon vehicles. Each officer received one pistol and bullets.
They arrived near the temple at about 10.30pm that night and waited on the flyover near the temple, about 100m away, with the Bravo 4 team arriving at the same time, and stationing themselves 50m in front.
Shuhaimi told coroner Rafiah Mohamad that he contacted the Subang Jaya police district headquarters and spoke to one ASP Nasir, who works at the station’s operation centre, but Nasir did not give him any instruction.
Ten minutes later, a police superintendent, one Jefri Mohd, came to the Bravo 4 group. Shuhaimi said he met with him and ASP Firdaus, who was in charge of Bravo 4, and that Jefri tried to call the station.
But Jefri was unable to reach the district headquarters police chief. So he spoke to his deputy and Jefri was able to update him about the current state of things at the temple and that they were on standby.
At this time, there were about 5,000 persons gathered outside the temple and the crowd was shouting and making noise on the streets. “But what they were shouting about, I’m not too sure.”
Sometime after 11pm, Shuhaimi, 38, noticed a fire coming from the street and later found out that it was a car burning on the side of the road. Then he saw another car burning, this time right in front of the temple.
But until this point, Shuhaimi said he had yet to receive any instruction from the Subang Jaya police. They were only supposed to stay there until 4am the next day and be on standby, he said.
Then, Shuhaimi said he heard a fire engine’s siren coming from the nearby housing area across the street. And as soon as it stopped at the main road leading to the highway, those on the streets charged at the truck.
“I heard all kinds of sounds and at the same time, I saw the two bomba vehicles retreating quite quickly to the point that I lost sight of them,” he said when asked by conducting officer Hamdan Hamzah today.
He also said that the crowd, said to be numbering several thousand that day, was “out of control”. But this was still not enough for the FRU to act as they were only there as a “backup” for the Subang Jaya police.
“We should have been briefed or given specific orders whether to take action or to remain on standby. And the order that night was to only be on standby with no other instructions when we were there,” he said.
Asked by Hamdan why the FRU did not take matters into their own hands and diffuse the situation, Shuhaimi said the FRU’s standard operating procedure (SOP) specified what they could and could not do.
“The instruction we received was to report to the Subang Jaya police chief and receive instructions from him,” he said, citing Chapter 25 of the Public Order Manual relating to the duties of the FRU in such cases.
Shuhaimi also said that while the FRU could control a crowd numbering more than 1,000, “at the time, we did not have enough manpower that was required as some officers were on leave and other reasons”.
Shuhaimi also said while Section 3 of the Police Act 1967 said that the police must maintain public order, for the FRU, force could only be used as a last resort.
He said there were some laws that gave the FRU power to take action, though. “But based on the situation and assessment by officials, we decided that we were still tied by our SOP,” he said when asked about this.
On whether he thought the FRU had made a mistake which led to Adib’s death, Shuhaimi disagreed. He also said he didn’t call the Selangor police chief that night about this.
But he said that even though they were on standby, when they saw a group of 50 to 60 rioters approach the two fire trucks, he instructed his team to turn on the engine of their vehicles and call the police chief. Jefri then managed to get hold of the Subang Jaya police chief, who told them to remain on standby.
He also said he only found out that a fireman had been severely injured during the riots at 3am on Nov 27 via a viral message circulated on Facebook. He did not see this happening himself.
Later, security firm manager Hardeep Singh, 29, testified that he was the one who took short videos on his iPhone X when the two fire trucks had been attacked, which led to one of them knocking the other.
The inquest had earlier heard that Adib was pinned down against a parked car by an Emergency Medical Rescue Service van after it was hit by a reversing fire rescue tender to escape the rowdy rioters there.
An inquest into Adib’s death was called by the government this year amid conflicting claims on the cause of the late fireman’s death.
Adib, 24, was part of the Emergency Medical Rescue Services sent from the Subang Jaya fire and rescue station to the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman temple on Nov 27.
He is said to have been attacked there. He succumbed to his injuries on Dec 17 at the National Heart Institute. Medical witnesses said he died due to multiple organ failure.
Today was the 14th day of the inquest.
The inquest continues tomorrow.