Suspected criminal killed in shootout with police in Bukit Mertajam

A man believed to be a criminal actively involved in armed robberies was killed in a shootout with police in Jalan Berjaya, here early this morning.

State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) chief, SAC Zainol Samah said during the 1.25am incident, a task force team from the Criminal Investigation Division (D9) from Penang police contingent headquarters was conducting an operation code-named 'Op Khas' in Bukit Mertajam when they detected a suspicious-looking Proton Iswara car.

"The team then trailed the Proton Iswara car from Jalan Soon Ban Keng and tried to stop the vehicle, but the driver sped off and headed towards Kampung Baru.

"The police succeeded in intercepting the vehicle after chasing the suspect for three kilometres and stopped the car at Jalan Berjaya," he said here today.

As the policemen alighted from their vehicle, they heard several shots fired from the direction of the Proton Iswara and had to return fire, he said.

Zainol said the police then found the man dead with gunshot wounds on the driver's seat.

"Initial investigation revealed that the 31-year-old man was on the police's wanted list, in connection with an armed robbery in Kuantan, Pahang, where a gold trader incurred losses of RM30,000," he said.

He said further examination found a black Cz 75p-01-cal .9 Luger pistol with live ammunition and bullet casing apart from a pouch containing a pair of white gloves, two black masks, an 18cm karambit knife and one big packet containing 16 smaller packets suspected to be filled with methamphetamine.

"This is one of the biggest successes of the police as our preliminary investigation found that the suspect was planning to rob a gold-manufacturing factory in Butterworth," he said.

Police did not rule out the possibility of the suspect to be involved in a spate of armed robberies involving losses of hundreds of thousands of ringgit in Penang, he said.