Lahad Datu: Five friends who have a spot of fun gambling ended in tragedy when four of them were stabbed, with one succumbing to the wounds inflicted, in an incident that occurred in front of the workers' quarters numbered 28A, on a farm along Jalan Silabukan near here, on Sunday evening.
The 10.30 am incident took place while five friends, all of them farm labourers, were engrossed in a game of Dominoes.
Meanwhile, Lahad Datu district police chief, Superintendent Shamsudin Mat, disclosed that the victim who was killed at the scene was known as Amirudin Raside, 38, from stab wounds to his abdomen.
Meanwhile, he said, the three other victims stabbed in the incident and treated at the Lahad Datu Hospital (LHD) were known as Iwan Kadir, 29, Hanung Udin, 35, and Saripudin Palkasih, 40. Each of them were stabbed in the chest, right side rib cage and in the abdomen respectively.
Shamsuddin said, in less than an hour after the incident, the police were able to arrest a 35 years old suspect who was also a friend of all the victims.
"The suspect was arrested while hiding in a house not far from the scene," he said in a press conference here yesterday that was attended by the District Head of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Inspector Mutalib Harun.
Shamsudin said based on the initial investigation conducted, police established that the incident happened when all of them were busy gambling.
However, he said, a while later, the four victims were said to have accused one of the victim's friend, who is the suspect involved of cheating during the gambling session and an argument ensued thereafter.
"For fear of being beaten up, the accused then went into his bedroom, took out a knife and then rushed out and stabbed all the four victims out there quickly.
"The stab wound inflicted caused Amirudin to die at the scene, while the three other victims who were seriously injured managed to escape," he said.
Shamsudin revealed that following the incident the police also seized a ‘Bugis' knife measuring 20 cm long that was believed to have been used by the suspect in the incident.
"The knife was found on the stairs near the house where the suspect was arrested," he said, adding that the case was being investigated under Section 302 of the Penal Code.
--Courtesy of New Sabah Times