Horror attack at JB’s Shell station: No sense of unease while manhunt goes on
Business has returned to normal at the Shell petrol station frequented by Singaporeans in Taman Pelangi, Dec 18, 2017. Photo: Raj Nadarajan/TODAY
JOHOR BARU — A day after a man was brutally attacked by assailants and mowed down by a car, it was business as usual on Monday (Dec 18) at the Shell petrol station in Johor Baru, Malaysia where the alleged murder took place.
Speaking to TODAY, petrol kiosk attendants, Singaporeans, and businesses near the scene shrugged off the attack which took place on Sunday evening, not far from the Singapore Woodlands checkpoint.
The Shell station is used by a number of Singapore cars and on Monday, there were about two to three cars with a Singapore licence plate seen there over a two-hour period. It is located along the busy Jalan Sri Pelangi in Taman Pelang, close to KSL City mall and a Giant Hypermart.
When contacted at 8pm on Monday, Johor Criminal Investigation Department’s chief Azman Ayob said that the four suspects who were in the white BMW are “still at large” and the police are looking for them. The motive of the attack, which has been classified as murder by the police, is not clear at the moment. The nationality of the victim is not known.
Bangladeshi worker Abdul Saatar, 25, said that the incident unfolded three car-lengths away from the car wash area at Shell where he was working. He said: “I am not affected. Fights are common. I didn’t think it was anything. During the commotion, the people were speaking in Mandarin and I didn’t understand it.”
He did not stop work even when a firecracker thrown by one of the victim’s assailants set off. “Twenty minutes later, I realised that a guy was killed”, he told TODAY.
The police later questioned him, along with two other Singaporean car owners who had left their vehicles to be cleaned by him, but none could provide details of what had happened, Mr Abdul said. He added that more than 50 onlookers had gathered at the scene by then.
Another Bangladeshi, 28, who works the night shift at Shell returned from a dinner break to see the police and a corpse at the site. Giving his name as just Rasel, the employee of more than three years said that his work was interrupted for an hour after that.
At Sri Maju Car Wash directly opposite the Shell kiosk, Mr Muhammad Man, 25, a Bangladeshi working there said: “I am very busy. I didn’t see anything. Something happened at the other side, not my company’s problem. Anything to do with another company, I don’t like to know.”
He added that there were more than 10 cars lining up to be serviced where he was working that night.
Malaysian Victor Lee, 58, who lives across the street from the scene, saw the victim lying motionless on the ground at 8pm on Sunday, but he just shrugged and said: “I have seen too much of these. Fights like these are very normal.”
State police chief Mohd Khalil Kader Mohd told reporters earlier that the victim was using the air pump for tyres at the petrol kiosk when he and his wife, a Vietnamese in her 20s, were approached by four men who tried to drag him into their BMW.
He was stabbed in a struggle with the suspects, who then got back into the BMW and ran him down, Mr Khalil added.
After hitting him, the car driver reversed and drove over the man again. The car then sped out of the station, stopping briefly for one of the assailants to hop on, Malaysian media reported. Footage of the gruesome act also made its rounds on social media.
The victim’s body was released and collected by his wife on Monday. She was seen crying as undertakers loaded her husband’s coffin onto a hearse, The Star reported.
Food seller Chen Xiao Ming, 34, who witnessed the incident, was unfazed by the violence. He told TODAY that there is “nothing to be worried about” as the attack seemed to have happened because a group of people were “seeking revenge” from the man.
“It’s personal (and targeted at one individual), so I am not worried (about security),” he said as he set up his stall at his usual spot outside the Korean restaurant that was pictured in the videos of the crime circulating online.
Mr Chao’s view was echoed by many Singaporeans who were in the area on Monday. They knew about the death and had seen the clips of the attack.
Civil servant Dan Farid, 30, who was at the Shell station, said: “It’s most likely gang-related, so I don’t consider it a public security issue, although the groups seem to be getting more brazen when they do it in the open, in view of all the closed-circuit TVs.”
Mr Dan would be more worried if a robbery had occurred than what he deemed as an “attempt to kidnap a fellow gone bad” in this instance.
Another Singaporean, a 56-year-old housewife who identified herself as just Ms Lee, said: “From the looks of it, it’s a personal feud.”
Grab driver Goh Pei Zong, 26, said: “We don’t have to be scared if we don’t have an enemy here (in Johor Baru).”
