Officers who opened fire ‘had acted according to protocol’

The question of whether officers could have not shot at the driver in the Shangri-La shooting last May was brought up by his family’s lawyer yesterday, but the investigator of the case affirmed that the officers who opened fire had acted according to protocol.

Taking the stand yesterday, Deputy Superintendent of Police Roy Lim said the objective is to “stop and neutralise” a vehicle that breaches security checkpoints similar to the one set up for the high-level summit going on during the incident. Shooting at the tyres or the engine would not “incapacitate” the car, he said, in response to questions from the family’s lawyer M Mahendran. Only when the fifth shot fired killed Mohamed Taufik Zahar that day did the car slow down.

Second Solicitor-General Kwek Mean Luck asked what could have happened if the car had carried a bomb instead. DSP Lim said there would have been mass casualties. “We cannot leave it to chance.”