Casualties after Incident at Gorong-Gorong, Timika, Papua

A tragic incident occurred on Monday, 28^th September 2015 in Gorong-Gorong, Timika, Papua Province when a clash between civilians and police officers resulted in the death of one civilian while another was left in a critical condition.

The incident was sparked when a group of men tried to steal a motorcycle from one of the houses in Gorong-Gorong on Sunday, 27^th September 2015 at 11 p.m. The owner of the house heard the attempted theft and cried for help. The burglars were arrested and taken to Mimika Baru Police Sub-Precinct office.

On the following afternoon, the house owner went to Mimika Baru Police Sub-Precinct office to solve the problem. However, perhaps due to emotional tension, the house owner physically assaulted the burglar, an act that was heard by some of the burglar’s friends.

That evening, at around 7 p.m., they took revenge by destroying and looting the owner’s house. One resident in Gorong-Gorong who saw the incident reported to Mimika Baru Police Sub-Precinct. Forty minutes later, three police officers came to the scene following the report. Seeing that the police had come, the people attacking the homeowner turned to attack the police officers with machetes and stones. The police officers were cornered and fired a warning shot into the air, which was ignored by the mob. Hard-pressed, the police officers fired shots to immobilize the crowd. Unfortunately, the shots hit one civilian on the chest and the other civilian on the thigh.

After the situation has abated, the shooting victims were evacuated to the ICU of Mimika District Hospital. The victim who was shot on the chest could not be saved while the other victim was left in critical condition.

Because of the clash, the relatives of the dead victim rampaged through Gorong-Gorong market. Tens of kiosks in the market as well as six stores were burned down.

Papua Police Chief, Insp. Gen. Paulus Waterpauw expressed his regrets over the incident and stated that Papua Police would bear the victims’ hospital cost as well as other treatment as needed. In addition, the Papua Police deployed a team led by Papua Deputy Police Chief Brig. Gen. Albert Rudolf Rodja to conduct an investigation and collect information on whether the police officers have acted in accordance with the procedure or not.