‘A thousand ways fireman Adib could have fallen’

SHAH ALAM: There are “a thousand ways” that fireman Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim could have fallen, hit the kerb and sustained his injuries, forensic expert Dr Ahmad Hafizam Hasmi said.

He said this under questioning by lawyer Syazlin Mansor who is representing the Housing and Local Government Ministry, Fire and Rescue Department as well as the family of the deceased at the inquest into the death of Muhammad Adib at the coroner’s court yesterday.

Syazlin, who showed him photos from the reconstruction conducted by the Fire and Rescue Department, which showed several patterns of injuries that did not match the ones found on Muhammad Adib, asked whether Dr Ahmad Hafizam could rule out falling on the kerb as one of the causes for his injuries.

To this, Dr Ahmad replied in the negative.

“I can only rule out that he fell on the kerb in the positions that were suggested in the photos.”

Syazlin also questioned why Dr Ahmad Hafizam did not carry out experiments to see how Muhammad Adib could have fallen on the kerb and on injuries that different ways of falling could produce.

Dr Ahmad Hafizam explained Hafizam that it was not normal practice for forensic pathologists to carry out experiments to explain how a victim could have sustained his injuries unless there were concrete clues on what transpired when the victim sustained the injuries and on what could have caused the injuries.

“For example, if someone was murdered with a claw hammer and the police showed us the hammer, then we can conduct an experiment to see whether the pattern on the hammer matches the injuries on the victim.

“And in that case, we can’t say that the hammer is the murder weapon, we can only say that the hammer matches the pattern of injuries.

“So in this case, we can’t say for sure that it was definitely the kerb that caused injuries to the victim.

“And as there are 1,001 ways how someone can fall, that is why a reconstruction is not suitable. The findings (of the reconstruction) can be debatable, and it is a waste of time,” he said.

Earlier, Dr Ahmad Hafizam said that without any eyewitness who could testify what happened to Muhammad Adib on Nov 27 last year, the most probable explanation on why the fireman was out of the EMRS van was that he went out on his own.

Under questioning by Syazlin, Dr Ahmad Hafizam said there was no corroborating testimony to suggest Muhammad Adib was forcefully pulled out of the van. The likely explanation was that he exited the van on his own due to the lack of defensive injuries on his body as seen from the clinical forensic examination and autopsy, said Dr Ahmad Hafizam

Judge Rofiah Mohamad coroner for the inquest.

Muhammad Adib, 24, was critically injured after he and his team from the Subang Jaya fire station responded to an emergency call at the Seafield Sri Maha Mariamman Temple where a riot was taking place. He died on Dec 17.

The inquest continues today. sits as