Former Certis CISCO officer jailed for firing gun at floor of shopping centre toilet

SINGAPORE: A former Certis CISCO auxiliary police officer was on Friday (Mar 11) jailed nine weeks for firing one round from his duty revolver without reason.

Goh Ze Lin, 37, was in a toilet cubicle in HarbourFront Centre at the time. No one was injured in the incident.

He pleaded guilty to one charge of committing a rash act that endangered human life.

Goh, then a corporal, was deployed alone at the OCBC Bank branch in the shopping centre on the morning of Jan 8, 2021.

He was issued with a Taurus 85 revolver loaded with five 0.38-inch live rounds for his duties, and another five spare rounds in a speed loader.

The effective range for this type of ammunition from the revolver is 46m, with the weapon expected to be accurate and potentially lethal within this range, according to court documents.

At about 11.45am, Goh went to a male toilet on the second floor, entered one of the cubicles and closed the door.

He removed his utility belt containing the loaded revolver and placed it on the floor in front of the toilet bowl. While seated on the toilet bowl, he removed the gun from his holster and fiddled with it.

As Goh thought about his financial matters, he "rashly squeezed" the trigger of the gun, according to court documents.

A single round was discharged from the gun, which was pointed downwards. The bullet hit the floor and caused a small indentation to a tile.

After the round was discharged, Goh finished relieving himself and re-holstered the gun.

At about 11.50am, he contacted the Certis Command Centre and informed an operations manager that he had discharged the gun inside a toilet. He was advised to stay where he was.

The police arrived at about 12.15pm and found the accused still inside the toilet.

Forensic examination of the revolver and metal fragments found on the floor of the cubicle determined that two of the fragments were from a bullet fired from the revolver.

The police's Force Armament Branch also examined the gun and found that Goh had deliberately pulled the revolver with sufficient pressure or cocked the hammer to discharge the live round.

The court heard that the distance between the point of firing and point of contact of the round was well within the potentially lethal range of 46m.

"The accused did not pay attention to whether there were persons in the toilet at the time and could not see if there were persons outside while inside the enclosed toilet cubicle," stated court documents.

"The accused was trained and certified to handle and use the revolver and knew that officers were not to draw or use their revolvers without threat.

"There was no threat of any kind at the material time and the accused knew that he had no reason to draw or use the loaded revolver."

An Institute of Mental Health doctor found that the Goh had a "transient situational reaction", and did not diagnose him with any mental disorder.

His employment with Certis CISCO has since been terminated.

The prosecution said that Goh's actions posed a high risk of harm and pointed out that there was some human traffic in the toilet.

Two people entered and left the toilet between the time that Goh went into the toilet and the time he informed his management about the incident, according to the prosecution.

They also said significant mitigating weight could be given for his cooperation in alerting Certis CISCO almost immediately, and remaining at the scene.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article stated that the offender was jailed for nine months. This is incorrect. He was jailed for nine weeks. We apologise for the error.