A crowd charged towards vehicle, says witness
SHAH ALAM: The sixth witness in the inquest into the death of firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim told the coroner’s court that Adib was nowhere to be seen when he escaped from an armed mob which chased after him during the riots at the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in Subang Jaya on Nov 27.
Firefighter Mohd Hazim Mohd Rahimi, 31, said he was with the Fire Rescue Tender (FRT) vehicle that was deployed to put out a vehicle fire during the incident.
However, he and his colleagues were met by a group of people, some of whom were armed with a steel rod, wooden planks and an object that resembled a samurai sword.
Hazim, who has been with the Fire and Rescue Department for more than six years, said he was assigned as the “nozzle man” for the operation.
He told the court that he was assigned to the FRT vehicle along with six other firefighters.
The EMRS van was manned by two other firemen, Adib being one of them. Upon reaching the site, Hazim said he feared for his life as he was chased by a member of the mob, who was joined by others.
“A group of people who were in front of the temple charged towards the FRT vehicle. They were in front of it. There was a person chasing after me, and the rest of them had weapons. I ran towards the EMRS van and got into it through its left sliding door and shut it. I laid in front of the stretcher,” Hazim said when answering a question from deputy public prosecutor Hamdan Hamzah.
He described the person chasing him as unarmed, but was wearing a “brightly coloured shirt”.
He related how the mob pushed and shoved the EMRS van until it spun slightly. Its left sliding door fell off due to the attack.
“The EMRS van moved left and right. I also could feel the van moving backwards.
I heard people clapping their hands. It was a loud sound of people cheering.”
He recounted this to Adib’s family’s lawyer, Mohd Kamaruzaman A Wahab.
Kamaruzaman: You felt the (EMRS) van was being shaken? Hazim: Yes. The strongest moment was when the (EMRS) van spun (around). That was when it felt the strongest.
Kamaruzaman: Were there any other vehicles around the (EMRS) van? Hazim: Yes, there were. Kamaruzaman: Did the (EMRS) van graze those vehicles?
Hazim: I am not sure. Kamaruzaman: How long was the time between when you got into the EMRS van and the time it spun?
Hazim: It happened so fast. Maybe 9 to 10 seconds. Kamaruzaman: What happened when it was tilted?
Hazim: The hitting got louder. Kamaruzaman: Was that when you noticed the sliding door was broken and had fallen off ?
Hazim: When the EMRS van was about to move away, the sliding door broke and fell off.
Hazim told the court he did not see Adib outside or inside the van as it moved away from the scene.
He said his superiors and the three teams involved in all the operations had conducted a post-mortem after the incidents in which they were told about their respective operations.
“One thing that was told in the post-mortem was that it was the same person who had called the operations centre (PGO) to inform about the fire in Subang Jaya, and then later called the Puchong Fire and Rescue Station for another fire truck to be sent to the same location. This was based on the ‘records.”