KUCHING: The police hunt for the suspect who assaulted and shot a Grab driver yesterday afternoon was called off late yesterday.
Sarawak Head CID SAC Denis Leong said the men and the dog unit had called off the search for the day.
According to Leong, in the 2.30pm incident, a Grab driver in his 40s was answering a call to take a passenger from Kuching Sentral to Jantayu Strawberry Farm in Matang.
Along the way he was asked to stop at the edge of the Matang highway area and that was the time Sim was suddenly hit with a hammer at the back of his head three times. He was also shot with an air-gun.
Leong said the victim was sent to the Sarawak General Hospital by firemen who were called to the scene.
He said police had condoned off the area and brought in the dog unit to search for clues.
According to Leong, police believed the driver’s attackers had used an air-gun that normally used marbles as the bullets.
Earlier, when news first trickled in on the incident, New Sarawak Tribune was made to understand that “a Grab driver was sprayed with shotgun pellets by his passenger in a robbery case at about 4.45pm”.
Meanwhile, in an interview with New Sarawak Tribune, the victim’s wife (name withheld for safety reason) said her husband, aged 43 from Sekama, was made to undergo an X-ray at the hospital.
She said, according to her husband, the suspect had wanted to rob him of his money and car.
She said when the suspect hit him a few times, Sim fought back and that was the time his attacker shot him.
She said after firing at him, his attacker disappeared into the jungle nearby.
She said having heard of Grab drivers killed and seriously injured by their passengers, her husband was very fortunate to be alive.
She said her husband is a contract worker doing painting job or grass cutting. But when business went too slow, he decided to do Grab about a year ago,
The couple had two children.
