JOHOR BARU: A 51-year-old policeman with the rank of Sergeant-Major was found dead with a gunshot wound to his chest in the weaponry workshop room of the Seri Alam district police headquarters here yesterday.
A source said the body of the policeman, who was transferred to Johor from Negri Sembilan just two weeks ago, and who was attached to the police's weaponry branch, was found lying face-down in the room at about 7am.
His colleagues discovered the policeman's body and contacted an ambulance from the Sultan Ismail Hospital.
Paramedics who arrived at the scene pronounced him dead before transporting his remains to the hospital's mortuary.
Johor Police Chief Datuk Wan Ahmad Najmuddin Mohd is expected to make a press statement on the case.
Relatives of the policeman, when met outside the hospital mortuary, said that the deceased reported for duty at his new posting on Jan 1, after being promoted and transferred to Johor from the Jelebu district police headquarters in Negri Sembilan.
A nephew, who only wanted to be known as Din, 53, said that he received a call from his uncle's wife at about 10am yesterday informing him of the incident.
"My uncle's wife was crying on the phone. She said her husband was dead and told me to look into the arrangements at the mortuary because she lives in Ampangan in Seremban, Negri Sembilan," said Din.
He said that his uncle was a father of three boys and a girl, aged 16 to 26, and that the wife and three of their children lived in their home in Ampangan, Seremban.
Their eldest 26-year-old son works in Singapore and lives here, but was in Kelantan visiting his in-laws when the incident occurred.
Din said that his uncle was renting a house in Bandar Seri Alam with another policeman.
He added that he last met his uncle for breakfast on Saturday.
"He did not have problems at work, but he told me it was difficult for him to adjust to living away from his family for the first time. He was not used to it.
"He served in the force for more than three decades, but his previous postings were close to his family in Seremban. This is the furthest he has ever worked from his family," Din said.
Another of the policeman's nephew, Azman Ahmad, 45, said their family were in the dark as to the cause of his uncle's death.
"His wife called relatives in Johor to help her with the arrangements at the mortuary. None of us knows what really happened or how he died," said Azman.
He said his uncle had received treatment at the National Heart Institute for suspected heart disease, but doctors later gave him a clean bill of health.
Azman added that family members are waiting for police to release the body so that funeral arrangements could be made at the family's home in Seremban.