The deadly 40-hour riot at the Mobile Brigade Command Center (Mako Brimob) detention center in Depok that ended yesterday morning took the lives of five police officers. But in a separate (though likely related) attack that took place last night in the same area, another police officer was stabbed to death before his assailant was shot and killed.
Police released a statement about the deaths this morning including the identities of the victim, 41-year-old Chief Brig. Marhum Prencje of the Mobile Intelligence (IntelMob) unit, and the assailant, a 23-year-old man who identified himself as Tendi Sumarno.
According to the police statement, Marhum was standing guard in front of the Bhayangkara Police Hospital at around 11pm when he saw Tendi acting suspiciously. Marhum approached him and asked him what he was doing there but Tendi was unable to give him a satisfactory answer.
Marhum then contacted two of his fellow officers to help him arrest the intruder, after which they took Tendi to the IntelMob police station.
After entering the station, Tendi was able to grab a weapon that police had not detected upon his arrest.
“The person who claimed to be named [Tendi] grabbed a knife that he kept under his genitals,” Indonesian police spokesperson Setyo Wasisto at a press conference today as quoted by Merdeka.
Tendi stabbed Marhum and then attempted to attack another officer but was immediately shot in the chest and killed.
Marhum was immediately rushed to Bhayangkara Hospital but was declared dead on arrival. This morning at 2:40am, police delivered the bodies of both victim and assailant to Kramat Jati Hospital for an autopsy.
Police are investigating the attack but have not yet released any information on Tendi regarding his background or possible motives, though there is of course speculation that it was somehow connected to the recent riot at Mako Brimob.
The riot, which involved more than 150 prisoners, started on Tuesday evening and finally ended Thursday morning after police stormed the facility and were able to subdue the last 10 prisoners who refused to surrender.
Five police officers and one inmate were killed in the violence while another police officer who had been held hostage was rescued. Police say that rioters tortured their captive colleagues and several were murdered by having their throats slit.
Prisoners were able to get their hands on weapons from guards as well as gain access to guns and explosives that were being stored at the detention center as evidence. They also had access to smartphones that they used to send photos, videos and even live broadcasts of the chaos inside the facility.
Police said that the 40 or so prisoners who incited the riot were all members of Jemaah Anshorut Daulah, an Islamist extremist network that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Islamic State, via their internal Amaq News Agency, claimed that it was their fighters that had “engaged in a clash with Indonesian anti-terrorism police inside a prison in Jakarta.”
In the wake of the riot, the government is facing accusations that the Mako Brimob detention center, which was originally meant only to hold police officers accused of committing crimes, was ill-equipped to handle the large number of dangerous terrorists being held there and that experts had warned it was a “disaster waiting to happen” long ago.
