“These teams would help the police and the Indonesian Military deployed in Puncak Jaya to hunt down the shooter,” Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Paulus Waterpauw said Tuesday. “The perpetrator’s act is savage and inhumane, shooting a teacher who every day teaches children there to become educated,” he said.

Ezra Patatang, 27, was a contract teacher who had been teaching Catholic class for state elementary school SDN Dondon Baga, Mulia, Puncak Jaya, and moonlighted as an ojek (motorcycle taxi) driver. He was shot by an unidentified man in Karubate village in Mulia district on Monday at 6:30 p.m.

“That afternoon he was on his way from Kota Baru to his house in Kota Lama. He took a passenger to Kota Lama. Not long after that, he was found dead with a gunshot wound,” Markus Tandiyu, the head of Torajan community in Puncak Jaya said. Torajans hail from South Sulawesi.

Ezra lived with his sister, Resty Patatang, who is also a teacher.

From a preliminary investigation, the police found that Ezra was shot from a short distance with the bullet entering his right temple and exiting through the back of his head. “When we found him, he was about 10 meters away from his motorcycle. It looks like there was a struggle before he was shot,” Waterpauw said.

Ezra’s body was sent to Makassar in South Sulawesi to be laid to rest in Masamba, Luwuk regency in South Sulawesi. (evi)

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