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span class="caption" style="width: 398px;">Brutal murder: Police forensic investigators examine a bullet-ridden SUV in a garage on Jl. Akasia in Medan, North Sumatra, on Wednesday. Kho Wie, the owner of a fish company, his wife Dora Halim were shot to death by men armed with automatic weapons while they were parking their car in their house’s garage. JP/Apriadi GunawanResidents of Chinese descent in Medan, North Sumatra, have grown increasingly restless over the number of robberies and incidents of violence targeting their community in the provincial capital.

The most recent incident occurred on Tuesday evening when a Chinese-Indonesian couple were sprayed with 25 bullets while parking their car in their own garage.

The brutal attack, allegedly perpetrated by assailants using FN guns, also injured the couple’s youngest son Cristovin, 3, and his baby-sitter, Aini.

“We are very concerned about the incident. The police must capture the culprits as soon as possible,” Chinese-Indonesian Association (INTI) North Sumatra branch chairman Indra Wahidin told The Jakarta Post Wednesday.

The couple, identified as Kho Wie, also known as Awi, 34, and Dora Halim, 30, were reportedly attacked by a group of unidentified youths as they arrived at their house at about 9:30 p.m. They reportedly died instantly.

The bodies of the deceased, along with the injured victims, were evacuated to the Columbia International Hospital in Medan.

Indra expressed fear that the incident would cause unrest among the Chinese-Indonesian community in the region and surrounding areas if the police were unable to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to court. He said it was not the first time that Chinese-Indonesians in Medan had become targets of irresponsible gunplay.

“Whoever we are, including Chinese-Indonesians, we are all longing for a peaceful life. It’s something that all of us want to have,” said Indra, adding that the case was homework for the new North Sumatra Police chief Insp. Gen. Wisjnu Amat Sastro to create a more secure environment among all people in the province.

Several Chinese businessmen in Medan have recently become targets of robberies. The victims included a rice vendor at the Emerald Medan housing complex on Jan. 23, 2011. The victim was robbed as he got together with family members on a Sunday morning. The thief managed to make away with Rp 300 million in cash.

Several days later a showroom owner on Jl. Timor was tied up in his house while robbers fled with jewelry reportedly worth tens of millions of rupiah.

The police have not yet been able to solve the two cases.

Asked why Chinese-Indonesians had been the targets of robbery and murder in the city, Indra said the violence could be triggered by the fact that many Chinese-Indonesians in the area were economically well-off.

He called on the Chinese-Indonesian community in the region not to flaunt luxurious lifestyles in public. “Get along with the surrounding communities and don’t raise your profile with extravagant behavior,” Indra said.

The same call for police to thoroughly investigate the case also came from provincial legislator Brilian Mukhtar, who is himself Chinese-Indonesian.

He said that as far as he could tell, the sadistic killing of Awi and Dora was purely murder because their were no indications of robbery as a motive.

“The Police have to be quick in uncovering the motive behind the killing. Capture the killers. Don’t allow Chinese-Indonesian residents to feel unsafe living in Medan,” Brilian said Wednesday.

North Sumatra Police detective and crime director Sr. Comr. Agus Adriyanto confirmed Wednesday that robbery did not appear to be the motive at the scene of Tuesday’s
killings.

“This was not a robbery. We are still working hard to investigate the case,” Agus said, adding that so far the police had questioned three
witnesses.

Medan is home to some 400,000 Chinese-Indonesians, making them the third-largest ethnic community in the city of 2.7 million after Javanese and Bataks. The Chinese-Indonesian community in Medan is even larger than the Malay community, which is fourth in number.