SHAH ALAM: A new twist emerged in the inquest into the death of Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim when a witness told the Coroner’s Court that he saw the fireman “getting squeezed” in between the Emergency Medical Response Service (EMRS) van and another vehicle.
This, said Pakistani Budd Mohsin, happened as the Fire and Rescue Department team retreated from a mob of people charging towards them outside the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in Subang Jaya on Nov 27 last year.
The 24-year-old, who was at the location to visit a security guard friend, said he saw three firemen alighting from a Fire and Rescue Tender (FRT) and the EMRS van, which was trailing behind.
He said he was standing at a security post and saw the mob torching a vehicle nearby before the FRT and EMRS van arrived at the scene.
“I saw three firemen getting out of the vehicles – two from the fire truck (FRT) and one from the ambulance (EMRS).
“The mob rushed towards them (the firemen) while they were exiting their vehicles, causing them to panic and they tried to get back inside (their vehicles).
“One fireman managed to get back inside the truck, while another two tried to escape via the ambulance.
“I saw one of (the remaining two) manage to get inside the ambulance via a back sliding door. However, the other one failed to get inside as the door was shut,” he said when answering a question by deputy public prosecutor Hamdan Hamzah.
Budd said the lone fireman who did not get back inside the EMRS van was clad in a dark T-shirt and orange fireman trousers and was standing on the left side of the van.
Hamdan: What happened after that?
Budd: I saw him trying to run towards the Caltex pump station nearby.
Hamdan: Did he manage to escape?
Budd: No.
Hamdan: Why?
Budd: As the fire truck was reversing and hit the ambulance (EMRS van), the fireman’s left shoulder was hit by the ambulance. Then he was squashed between the ambulance and a white car parked by the roadside.
Budd, who spoke in Punjabi, said Adib fell with his face facing upwards following the impact.
He said the EMRS van proceeded to reverse further and crashed into three or four other vehicles parked by the roadside, before leaving the scene.
The inquest had previously established that Adib was among two firemen who were in the EMRS van when it arrived at the scene.
The inquest also previously established that one of Adib’s colleagues, Mohd Hazim Mohd Rahimi, who testified during the first week, had initially been in the FRT before alighting and later left the scene after getting into the EMRS van.
Budd said that on the night of the incident, he went to visit a friend who worked as a security guard and went to the latter’s security post at a housing estate near the temple.
He said he did not recognise that the fireman who was squeezed between two vehicles was Adib at the time of the incident.
However, he recognised it was Adib after watching news of the incident later and based on the clothes that the victim wore.
The Coroner’s Court was also shown two video clips from the rioting incident: a 43-second video clip from a handphone and a 14-minute closed circuit television clip of the scenes when the FRT truck and EMRS van had left.
Budd said the first video, which showed the FRT and EMRS van reversing after being confronted by the mob, was taken by his friend by the name of Hardeep.
“I was standing about 12m behind Hardeep who recorded the video.”
The inquest is being held before coroner Rofiah Mohamad.
It was claimed that Adib, 24, died from severe injuries sustained after he was allegedly assaulted by rioters at the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in Subang Jaya on Nov 27.
He was part of an emergency response team despatched to the scene to douse a vehicle which had been torched.
Despite showing signs of recovery while being treated at the National Heart Institute, Adib died on Dec 17.