Police allege debt behind hospital bloodbath

Remains of the dead victims, identified as Stenley Wenno (39) was moved from the autopsy room to the coffin. Wahyu Aji/Tribunnews.com

 A preliminary investigation has led the police to conclude that debt may have been the motive behind the bloody attack on mourners at Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital’s funeral home on Thursday.

“The people attacked were debtors,” Central Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Angesta Romano Yoyol said Friday.

Around 50 assailants brandishing swords and machetes attacked a number of mourners in the hospital compound in the wee hours of Thursday. Two died and six were injured in the attack, referred to by the media as a gang war between Maluku gangs.

Yoyol declined to further detail the incident, but confirmed that the attack was premeditated.

Police arrested seven people and have named three of them suspects.

The dead victims, identified as Stenley Wenno, 39, and Ricky Tutu Boy, 37, were flown to Ambon, Maluku, for burial on Friday. (iwa)