Men in black behind Kota Kinabalu shooting spree
BY MUGUNTAN VANAR AND STEPHANIE LEE
CCTV footage showing one of the groups involved in the shootings.
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KOTA KINABALU: A group of shooters who were involved in the shooting spree here were dressed in black, with masks or black hoods covering their faces.
CCTV footage from a budget hotel at Damai in Luyang showed a vehicle speeding off after several "shots" were fired at its entrance around midnight Friday.
"They looked like teenagers, they drove off very fast after the shooting," said a restaurant supervisor Dominic Peter who viewed the footage.
"You can't really see much but they looked young," said Dominic who found out about shooting spree on Saturday morning.
A security guard at one of the banks targeted by the group in black said that he heard something hitting the glass door.
"As I went to investigate, the glass pane collapsed," he said, adding that he did not realise that it was an "attack".
The guard, who did not want to be named, said he initially thought someone had thrown an object at the glass pane.
"Sometimes these glass panes can just crack and break and I thought that was what happened," he said, adding that he did not notice any car fleeing the scene.
City folk got worried after word spread that about 30 establishments in Kota Kinabalu, Inanam and Penampang were hit by a wave of mystery shootings, perpetrated by three groups firing ball bearings from air-powered guns.
Glass panes and doors of the targeted hotels, shopping malls, banks and fast food outlets were riddled with single bullet holes, with some shattered by the shots fired by unknown people between midnight and 1am.
No reports of any injuries were received.
Police have ruled out the possibility the shooting spree was linked to Sulu armed groups or the ongoing Lahad Datu intrusion trial.
They said they suspected it was the work of juveniles and called for the public to remain calm.
