Cops: It’s murder
> Perpetrator who tossed chair from apartment block that killed teen may face death penalty
KUALA LUMPUR: The culprit who threw a chair from an upper floor of a block of People’s Housing Programme (PPR) apartments in Pantai Dalam that killed a secondary school student will face a murder charge once caught by the police.
Kuala Lumpur CID chief SAC Rusdi Mohd Isa said the case, which was initially classified under Section 304 A of the Penal Code for causing death by negligence, has been reclassified as murder, with the suspect facing the mandatory death sentence.
“Investigators have begun interviewing residents and the investigations will go on indefinitely and tracing the culprit is only a matter of time,” Rusdi said.
Police failed to find any fingerprints on the chair and are working on other leads to track down the perpetrator.
The victim, identified as 15-year-old S. Satiwaran, a Form Three student of SMK La Salle in Petaling Jaya, was accompanying his mother, 45, who had just finished grocery shopping.
As they were about to enter the apartment block at about 8.30pm when an office chair, believed to have been thrown from one of the upper floors, crashed down and struck Sathiwaran. He died instantly. Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar has called on the authorities to carry out a thorough investigation into the case.
“I wish to convey my condolences to the family. I have lodged several complaints about incidents like this to the authorities ... hoping for the right action to be taken against the culprits,” she said in a Facebook post after visiting the scene yesterday.
Residents of the apartment block are also demanding action be taken against the person responsible.
Among them was PPR Sri Pantai residents’ association chairman Tursiah Sinor, 49.
“There have been numerous incidents of irresponsible occupants simply throwing garbage from the corridor balconies, which even resulted in injuries to whoever it hit below. But not like this,” she said.