First Robbery manager has experienced in 40 years!!
From today's S.T.
Hostage-taker shot
By Tanya Fong
And Ben Nadarajan
A MAN who took a customer hostage in a bank yesterday afternoon was shot
twice, after a tense but brief stoff with a Cisco guard.
ALL IN A DAYS WORK: Lance Cpl Mohamed Ghazali leaving then bank after
shooting the robber, who had threatened a middle-aged customer with what
appeared to be a gun.
He is now in intensive care at the National University Hospital.
The man, who had masked his face with a white towel, was wearing a
red-and-white straw hat, brown jacket and blue jeans when he entered the
bank on Upper Bukit Timah Road at about 1.30pm.
He grabbed the sole customer there by the neck, pointed what appeared to be
a gun at him and shouted 'Robbery' in Hokkien.
He then demanded money from the counter staff.
However, the Cisco officer on duty at the Maybank branch, Lance Corporal
Mohamed Ghazali Arifin, 43, drew his weapon - and was able to fire two shots
when the middle-aged hostage broke free. The suspect, a 43-year-old
Singapore Permanent Resident, was hit in the head and right shoulder. At
press time, his condition was said to have stabilised.
No one else was hurt and it was later found that the robber's gun was a
plastic replica.
A Cisco spokesman said: 'Responding to the danger, the Cisco police officer
shot the suspect to protect the lives of the bank's customer and staff. All
of them are trained to protect lives and assets.'
Yesterday's was the first incident of its kind since September 1995, when a
bank robber opened fire on a Cisco guard - who fired two shots in response.
The robber and three accomplices then fled the POSBank outlet on King
George's Avenue.
Yesterday, Maybank's country head, Mr Spencer Lee, said this was its first
bank robbery in 40-odd years in Singapore.
