A doctor has been arrested for firing a gun to scare a parking attendant at the popular Gandaria City mall in Kebayoran Lama, South Jakarta, with CCTV footage of the incident going explosively viral in Indonesia over the weekend.
On Friday evening, the doctor, identified as Anwari, was driving an official Indonesian Military (TNI) car out of the parking lot of the mall. According to police, Anwari said he felt entitled to have his IDR5,000 (US$0.37) parking fee waived because he was driving a TNI car, but the attendant who manned the exit gate, named Juansyah, refused to let Anwari leave without paying.
“He (Anwari) felt insulted when the parking attendant said, ‘well, you have to pay.’ He was insulted and angry. He then hit (Juansyah) and took out a gun and fired once upwards,” said South Jakarta Police Chief Iwan Kurniawan, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.
After firing the gun, a terrified Juansyah can be seen in the CCTV footage begging for his life by kneeling at Anwari’s feet. It’s not known if he ended up paying the parking fee or not.
Regardless, the police quickly arrested Anwari and charged him with assault, which is punishable by up to two years and eight months in prison, and threat of violence, which is punishable by up to 1 year in prison.
According to the police, Anwari once served as a military doctor at the Gatot Subroto Army Hospital. The TNI car was actually issued to his wife, who is currently serving as a doctor at the same hospital.
“(Anwari) felt that if one were to drive an official TNI car then they wouldn’t have to pay the parking fee. He thought that there was a regional by-law for that,” Iwan said.
As for the gun, Iwan said that it was given to Anwari by a friend — whose identity was not disclosed — in 2000. There are no reports yet for Anwari being charged with unlawful firearm possession.
