KOTA KINABALU: Police arrested two armed men, including a taxi driver, for being allegedly involved in a robbery at a 7-Eleven convenience store at Salut Commercial Centre in Sepanggar on Tuesday.
City police chief ACP M. Chandra said the arrests were made just a couple of hours after the armed robbery took place around 5.10am on October 14.
“Prior to the arrests, one of the suspects, a 21-year-old man, had entered the convenient store armed with a meat cleaver and threatened two employees to hand over the money from the cash register machine and three cartons of Dunhill cigarettes.
“The suspect then fled the scene in a waiting taxi not far from the premises.
“Following a police report lodged by the victims, a manhunt was immediately carried out by a police team who managed to detain the taxi driver about 18minutes later along Jalan Sepanggar in Menggatal,” he said in a press conference at the city police headquarters in Karamunsing here yesterday.
Continuous investigation then led police to the second arrest of the main suspect at an unnumbered house at Kampung Gentisan, Menggatal at 9.50am the same day.
“In this raid, police recovered the stolen cigarettes and the meat cleaver that was used by the suspect,” said Chandra, adding that the suspect is also a drug addict with two previous criminal records.
According to Chandra, initial police investigation revealed that the main suspect robbed the convenient store as he did not have money to pay for the taxi fare.
“Both suspects have been remanded for further investigation under Section 392 and Section 397 of the Penal Code for robbery and armed robbery respectively,” he said.