KOTA KINABALU: The police are looking for the culprit who uploaded the close circuit television (CCTV) footage to the social media just hours after the recent drive-by shooting around the state capital and in Penampang.
State police commissioner Datuk Hamza Taib said the police would open an investigation paper pertaining to the fake CCTV footage that showed armed men walking into a building as the wanted suspect in the drive-by shooting.
Hamza said police would be working with the Malaysia Communication and Multimedia Commission to find the culprit who first uploaded the picture and claimed it was the footage recorded from one of the damaged premises in the city.
“We want to find the culprit who uploaded the picture and simply claiming that it was the footage and that the two men recorded in it were among the suspects to this case,” he told reporters at the launching of a religious book entitled: ‘Amalan Menyambut Kelahiran’ by the Malaysia Police Association Welfare (Perkep) at the state police headquarters in Kepayan here yesterday.
Also present were Hamza’s wife and Sabah Perkep chairman Datin Alauyah Mohamed, state deputy police commissioner P/DCP Datuk Abdul Malek Hj Harun and his wife Nor Ashekien Akasah, who is also Sabah Perkap deputy chairperson.
Meanwhile, Hamza said the police were still investigating whether criminal gangs were involved in the drive-by shooting which damaged more than 40 premises around the state capital on Jan 10.
He said the police were investigating the case from all angles and were not ruling out the possibility that criminal groups had planned the drive-by shooting.
“However, we are still investigating and thus far, no new arrests have been made apart from the three men under police detention,” he said.
Hamza also said the police would not reveal too much about their latest interrogation with the three detained men as they did not want to disturb the ongoing investigations.
Police believed that a group of irresponsible individuals, believed to be teenagers, had caused unnecessary panic when they went around the state capital shooting at 46 premises with what was believed to be air guns loaded with marbles.
The group was said to have moved around the state capital and in three vehicles shooting at premises along their way with air guns loaded with marbles, in the city centre, Inanam, Luyang and Penampang between 11.45pm on January 10 until 6am on January 11.
Among the premises affected were banks, hotels, beauty salons, restaurants, offices, a petrol station, car showrooms and shopping malls with losses estimated around hundreds and thousands of ringgit.
No known casualty was however reported in the incident, which reportedly brought about some degree of panic and apprehension in the social media, Facebook and WhatsApp.