Cop on duty alone slashed, shot dead
PETALING JAYA: A police lance corporal from Sarawak, who was on duty alone at the Pinggiran USJ police station, was found murdered with gunshot and slash wounds early yesterday.
Lance-corporal Valentino Mesa, 29, (pix) is believed to have been shot dead with his own pistol and slashed in the head by his assailants about an hour before his body was found face-down behind a counter at the community station by his colleagues at about 3.25am. His service pistol was missing.
Sources said at about 7.30pm, police arrested a 35-year-old man, who is also a Sarawakian and said to be a relative of the victim.
It is learnt that he was nabbed at the KL International Airport minutes before an aircraft he had boarded for Kuching was about to take off.
It is yet to be ascertained if he is a suspect or was held to merely assist in the investigations.
Patrolmen on duty had pulled over to check the place after finding the lights of the station, located in a shoplot, had been switched off at the time.
Thinking it was a power failure, they were shocked on seeing Mesa lying motionless on the floor in a pool of blood.
He had reported for work at midnight at the isolated station located in an industrial area.
Selangor police chief Commissioner Datuk Mazlan Mansor said yesterday that investigations are ongoing to determine the motive behind the attack.
He said there was no closed-circuit security cameras (CCTV) installed in the station but witnesses told police that they heard explosions coming out of the place at about 2.40am and thought it was the sound of fireworks for the National Day celebrations.
He said police believe Mesa was killed at the time as an officer had carried out an inspection at the station at 1.30am.
Mazlan said investigators are trying to obtain recordings of CCTVs installed in other buildings in the vicinity to identify those behind the murder.
He said police believe there were more than one assailant involved.
“The intention of the assailants was to attack the policeman and nothing else. We feel this is a challenge to the police but we will continue our policing work without fear and will always be here to serve the public.”
The deceased, who is married without children, joined the police force seven years ago.
Sources also said the victim who was well-liked by his colleagues was an active sportsman and played football for the Subang Jaya police team.